Lessons
by Stephensmat
Summary: After the Battle of the Red Death, the whole Village of Berk had to learn. The Villagers had to learn how to love Dragons. The Dragons had to learn how to help Berk. Hiccup had to learn how to lead. Astrid had to learn all that and more.
1. Swing A Big Axe

**AN** : _Just to warn you, most of this was written before I saw any of the TV is based solely on the two movies._

* * *

"What do you think?"

Astrid turned the wooden leg back and forth in her hands numbly. She knew nothing about design and construction. Hiccup knew that. Goober was the town blacksmith. He knew more than she ever would. So why was he asking for her opinion? Did he think that Hiccup had trained her? "I think he'll wake up, and have the whole thing redesigned in his head by the time he reaches the front door."

"He probably will at that."

Gobber was fearless at any speed, like most Vikings, but he kept ducking away from the bed... and the big black Dragon parked next to it. He excused himself soon after, bustling off, though Astrid could tell that he just wanted to be away from Toothless.

The Chief could see it too. "So. How do we do this?"

"Do what?" Astrid asked without thinking.

"What Hiccup did. Because we can't do everything he did, but we've got to do some of it. I'm asking, as someone who knew about the Fury before I did... What's your plan?"

It was surreal. The Chief was talking to her like a member of his council. Like a member of his own family. Clearly, she was dreaming.

Stoick glared at her. "I'm really asking here, girl. Don't stammer when the Chief asks you a question."

"Nosir." She nodded immediately.

"Hiccup is going to wake up. I've got a lot of amends to make, and by Odin, I promise you this: When he wakes up, he won't find that we've taken this thing he did and ruined it. A number of people on the other side of that door think that we should skin the Night Fury before he wakes up."

"Toothless." Astrid put in. "That's his name."

"My son named a Night Fury... 'Toothless'?" Stoick's eyebrows raised into his hairline. "He's aware how many people have been bitten _in half_ by Night Fury, right?"

Astrid gave a very Hiccup-like shurg, as though that explained everything.

Stoick changed suddenly before her eyes. He seemed to shrink into himself. He looked older now, smaller.

 _Weak._ The word filtered into her mind, and she pushed it away savagely. _Vikings do not break._

"How did I not see it?" Stoick asked suddenly. "How did I not see that my son had all of this knowledge, all of this work... How did I just not notice?"

"You were away a lot of the time."

"You were here." Stoick said, as though reminding her.

Astrid suddenly felt a thrill of panic go through her. Stoick was looking for her opinion of his son. He was seeking her confidence. He was... what? Recruiting her? Did he think that she and his son were an item? Did The Chief look at her as... as his son's girlfriend?

 _Is he wrong?_ A little voice answered the thought, and she pushed that way too. And then she remembered how Gobber had asked her advice about Hiccup's new limb, and it hit her: Hiccup had kept this enormous secret from everyone, but when the moment came, she had known before the rest of the town. His father had no idea when she'd found out, and naturally assumed she'd been part of Hiccup's secret life long enough to know what he would want.

 _So how much do I tell him?_ She asked herself _. Do I tell him that I only found out a few days ago? Do I tell him I was against it too, at first?_

"I was scared of it. Him." Astrid heard her voice say. "I reacted the way everyone else did. I tried to kill Toothless on sight. Hiccup stopped me, and... well; bad wing or not, Night Fury are damn fast. Death by Darkness."

"But you came around." Stoick nodded. "How do we do that?"

"Same way you teach us to stand and fight." Astrid decided. "In early training, when we're little kids? You make us stand nose to nose with the Dragon until we cry. And then you make us stay there until we stop crying." She took a shuddering breath. "It was the same with Toothless. Your son's dragon snatched me up and tossed me around the sky until I screamed, and then he kept going until I stopped screaming."

"How do we keep the Dragons under control?"

"You're asking me?" Astrid almost laughed.

"You were riding one." He reminded her. "You all were. All Hiccup's friends. He had to have taught you how."

"We weren't controlling anything." Astrid sighed. "Hiccup had ropes and hides, and we wrapped them around Dragon-Necks. Then we just held on for grim death."

"If you can't control them-" Stoick was about to say, when the sounds of chaos came from outside. With a glance at the sleeping Hiccup, they both hurried to see what it was.

Outside, a small war was breaking out. There was a flock of baby Gronckle ripping apart the fishmongers. There was a group of Dragon-Slayers trying to fight them back. Two of the larger Whispering Nightmare were snapping at the sheep. Every Viking they could see were looking for the class of trainees, or swinging their swords.

Stoick roared for silence, and he got it for half a second. The dragons took no notice of him, and if the Dragons were still screaming, then the people were too.

 **BOOM!** A sudden blast of white fire exploded directly over the village. The Viking's all dropped by instinct. The Dragons all froze, mid-movement. The whole town of Berk was frozen like a painting, mid-warzone.

Stoick and Astrid looked up to see that the blast had come from Toothless. He was perched on the roof of the Chief's house, proud as any Viking Warrior-King. His wings spread out like black clouds, and he spat lightning from one end of Berk to the other.

The dragons settled at once, landing around the Chief's house. The Chief puffed out his chest and folded his massive arms, recognizing a show of force when he saw one. "There will be a meeting in ten minutes in the Great Hall, and all villagers are to attend. Those that flew Dragons during the battle will report to the Training Grounds instead."

Astrid tried to inch away from everyone staring at them, but a glance from Stoick made her freeze. The humans all started moving, the Dragons did not. As she looked out at the village, she saw the dragons were organized. They were perched according to type, and the types according to age. Toothless glided down to ground level and walked, not flew, along each of them. The dragons wouldn't look him in the eye. Astrid had been around enough wild animals to know a show of dominance in any pack.

"Wow. It was never us." Astrid whispered, realizing. "We didn't control the dragons we were riding, it was Toothless. They followed him, even into battle with crazy screaming teenagers on their necks."

"Splendid. Then Toothless will handle the dragons. You handle the Riders, and I'll handle the village." Stoick said tightly to her.

"Me?" Astrid swallowed. "Chief Stoick, I don't know how you think it worked, but I'm not a leader. I just swing a big axe and scream at the other kids."

"We're Vikings, Miss Astrid." Stoick said with a grin. "That's what leadership is all about."

* * *

"Now listen up, you worthless maggots!" Astrid roared at her class. "Hiccup would be disgusted!"

None of the Dragonriders could meet her gaze, and she strode up and down the length of them, giving them all her worst glare. It was oddly identical to the way the wild dragons had been around Toothless, and she fought down the comparison in her mind. "Hiccup is lying in a bed, beaten senseless! And what were you lot doing? Hiding under a marketplace table while baby Gronckle fought over fish heads. Are we Vikings or not?"

Snotlout bravely raised a hand. "It's not like we knew-"

"Knew _what_? Knew what to do?" Astrid barked at him. "None of us knew what to do! The only guy in this village who had a clue what was going on was Hiccup! The class wimp had all of us looking like idiots! You know why? Because we _are_ idiots! We were so obsessed with swinging a damn axe that none of us stopped to think for thirty seconds!"

* * *

On the other side of town, Stoick was prowling the length of the Great Hall, having the same 'conversation' with the rest of the townsfolk.

"And I was leading the charge! If my son had been that closed minded, we'd all be dead right now! If I took half a second to listen to someone, we would still have a harbor full of ships!"

"You can't expect us to change every damn thing in the village overnight!" Someone shouted. "We've spent generations killing Dragons! How do we-"

"That's _exactly_ what I expect!" Stoick roared over them. "There was a time when we used stone axes, but them someone like Hiccup came along and put some thought into it, and we had Iron! Is original thought really so much to ask?"

* * *

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy!" Astrid raged at them. "But if Hiccup can swallow his fear long enough to sit and have dinner with a damn Night Fury, you better believe we can! And like it or not... We're the only Dragonriders in the world! At least, the only ones that we know about! The only people that have ever ridden a Dragon are in this pit right now, so like it or not, the whole village is going to be looking to us for an idea of what to do!"

"Like, us?" Snotlout snorted, nose dripping. "Whoa."

* * *

"Vikings are not so stupid as to believe that there's nothing for them to learn. And I'd like to think that they aren't so cold that they cannot learn to trust." Stoick made his pitch. "We're big. We've got great big shields, and great big swords, and great big muscles. My son had none of those things. But he had a great big _heart_! The single heart of the smallest Viking in Berk was able to turn a Night Fury from a Death God to a loved and trusted partner! If a Night Fury can stand up to a monster like that Red thing, and my son can stand up to _me_... Then you better believe that every single person in this village can stand up and do a fraction of what he did."

There was a rumble of agreement.

"And what he did, first and foremost... was not kill a dragon when I flat out screamed at him to do it! And if I had taken a moment to wonder why he hesitated... I might have saved his leg."

* * *

"So here we are." Astrid declared. "Dragnoriders of Berk. The one guy who knows what to do next is laying comatose, and we've got to pick up the slack before someone in the village takes out a Whispering Nightmare and tips off another war." She hefted her axe and rested it on her shoulder, ready to swing. "I'm not so good with the trusting and the appealing to people's better natures. So until Hiccup wakes up, I'll make this easy for you: Be sweet to the Dragons, and set a good example, or I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

* * *

"So, I will make this easy for you." Stoick finished. "When my son wakes up, he will either see a village made a million times stronger and wiser, or he will see a lot of dead people and dragons. Given that the only one who's done anything worth a damn for him is a Night Fury; I know which one I'd rather have him see." He stared them all down. "Your Chief commands you to do as much to help rebuild and protect this village as a bunch of battle-green teenagers have done. Your Chief commands you to show as much consideration for the Dragons, as a wounded Night Fury has shown for the humans that had him caged up. Anyone think that this is an unreasonable idea?"

"Chief, Odin knows that I'd rather have the Dragons as friends rather than enemies. If only because half the village has lost limbs at some point. Speaking for myself, I'm rather attached to my limbs."

There was a rumble of agreement to that.

"But that said... they're dragons, not puppies! How exactly do we do this?"

"We have a lot of work to do." Stoick admitted.

* * *

"I don't have those answers. Yet." Astrid told them. "Hiccup knows how to tame dragons. We've all seen him do it. For now, we can fake it until he wakes up. And since this is Hiccup we're talking about, he probably left notes somewhere-" She broke off, suddenly beaming. "Actually, yeah! He would have made notes somewhere! So let's find them and figure out how to-" She turned to run back to the Chief's house, coming nose to nose with a big Dragon beak. "YAAAH!" She jumped back into a combat crouch on instinct, almost falling on her rear.

The Dragon squealed too, jumping back.

Astrid was frozen. She knew she should get up, but the realization that Toothless had kept the dragons tame during the battle had rattled her. She'd only spent a few minutes with this Nadder, and most of that was in the Arena, trading blows and dragonfire.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her classmates scrambling for cover, some of them grabbing weapons.

 _Okay, Dragonrider._ She told herself, fighting panic. _Put your money where your mouth is._

Swallowing hard, she rose to her feet, and didn't run. She planted her feet and stared hard at the Nadder. "Okay." She said softly. "I'm..." Her voice cracked. "Listen, you don't have a name yet. But I'm Astrid, and if you promise not to eat my arm, we can be friends, okay?"

The Nadder blinked slowly. Astrid raised a hand, and held it out to the Dragon, palm down. It took all her will to keep her fingers from trembling. The Dragon considered her fingers... And leaned forward, nuzzling into her hand.

"Far out!" Snotlout whispered from somewhere safer.

Astrid turned to face the others as though she had expected that all along. "So. Any questions?" She demanded, hefting her axe again. "So go find your dragons." She watched them for a moment. "MOVE IT!"

* * *

Half an hour later, she was back in the Chief's room, going through Hiccup's clothes. They smelled of smoke and sulfur. It was the smell of dragonfire, and part of her shuddered.

His clothes had blood on them too. A lot of it. Enough for a lost limb.

Toothless was perched in the eaves, tail coiled around the heaviest support pole. He trilled at her a little, and she looked up at him. "We nearly lost him, didn't we?"

Toothless's flat head tilted a bit. His tail uncoiled from the pole, and instead flicked around her forearm, as though holding her hand. She was still holding Hiccup's flight jacket in her other hand. She sent a glance at the door, still shut... and without letting herself think about it, she pulled his collar up to her nose.

* * *

 _Her first flight was suddenly magical. She could reach out and touch the clouds... and it was all because of Hiccup. She'd spent most of the year ignoring him, or hating him. But put him with Toothless, and he was suddenly so... amazing._

 _Up among the clouds, racing the wind, it felt like a glorious dream. She suddenly found she was resting her chin on his shoulder, drinking it all in..._

* * *

She came out of the memory and found she could still smell his hair on the collar, just faintly over the ashes.

The door opened, and she quickly put the jacket down. Chief Stoick came upstairs and found Astrid, with Toothless' tail still holding her hand. "Mind if I join you?"

"It's your house." Astrid reminded him. The Chief came over and sat beside the bed. He looked tired. "So."

"So." Astrid nodded.

Toothless trilled a little. The three of them gathered around the bed. Her on the right, him on the left, and the Dragon above, wings hooded over them protectively.

"Interesting little family we're making here." Stoick commented.

Astrid turned so red she almost glowed. "No! Not... Actually, I was looking for Hiccup's... um... wait, I'll think of it. Notes! I was looking for his journal! I figure he had to have written down the things he knew about Dragons!"

"Great minds, indeed." Stoick commented. "I came back for the same thing. If we're going to get our people to be friendly with Dragons, the first step is to teach them about dragons. But you won't find it in his pockets." He reached under his son's mattress and pulled out the leather-bound book. "His mother, rest her soul, kept a journal like this. She had three books like this. Hiccup asked if he could have them when he turned ten years old. I never used them, and..." He swallowed. "His mother would be so proud of him."

"Everyone is." Astrid offered.

"No, not for saving the village." Stoick shook his head. "She would have been proud of him for not killing the Night Fury. She had the same idea, you know? Taming dragons, making them part of our life here..."

"What happened?"

"What always happened when you got too close." Stoick sighed. "Well, until a week ago, anyway." He gave Toothless a sad smile. "You've changed everything about this village, just by being my son's friend. Every. Single. Thing."

* * *

Astrid and Stoick pored over Hiccup's journal for the entire night. When dawn broke, classes began. Some of it, they knew already. Some of it, they'd seen Hiccup do in the Arena. Taming the baby Gronckle was easy, making them chase the lights. Most of the Dragons stayed out around the edge of the village, since the sky was getting crowded over Berk. The ones that came in closer to the people were mollified with a belly scratch.

The Dragonriders led the way. The Twins and Fishlegs were naturals. All they did was keep shoveling food into the dragons until they passed out. When they woke up, the flying reptiles were in love.

"It's the same way our mom's got us to love them, so why shouldn't it work on dragons?" Fishlegs said, as though it made perfect sense.

Toothless rarely left Hiccup's side, but seemed to sense when he was needed. Every now and then, some of the newer dragons came closer and got a little too excited. Toothless made a quick flight around the village once a day, stretching his wings, and the Dragonriders flocked together with him, letting everyone see them together.

Most of the villagers got over their fear after the first few flights, and Astrid noticed a few envious stares following her around.

Once the twins had shown Berk that they could earn Dragon Love with food, taming them became immensely easier. The Vikings may have lived on an island, but most of them knew basic animal husbandry for their working animals. Training dragons to carry loads was no different. Training the smaller ones to hunt vermin or catch fish was like training falcons. The Vikings of Berk put their skills to work.

There was coexistance, more than friendship. The fear was fading slowly.

* * *

"We're doing something wrong." Astrid said one night. Her Nadder was beside her, and the Chief sat on the front step of his house. Astrid had been given a standing invitation to come over whenever she wanted. She hadn't taken him up on it nearly as often as she could have... and if she was honest with herself, she wanted to come by more often and sit with Hiccup.

"Wrong? It seems to be going well." Stoick offered.

"No. This isn't right." Astrid said honestly. She gestured at the Nadder. "Look. She's willing to come by when I call, but if you'd seen Hiccup with Toothless? They wrestle like brothers, they play like little kids... We're doing something wrong."

"Animals are more intuitive than people." Stoick offered. "They can tell when they're not really wanted somewhere."

"Well, how can we convince them?"

"I don't know." Stoick sighed. "You make the invitation, but they stay out at arm's length. You can see the affection in their eyes, you can see that they want to come closer; but for whatever reason, they stay away longer than they want to."

 _We're not talking about Dragons._ Astrid realized, and she turned red again.

"Hiccup's awake." The Chief said quietly. "He came out of it for a few minutes, then dropped off again. The Healers say that by morning, he'll be awake and clear again."

Astrid felt her knees go weak. "He's okay." The Nadder came over and nudged her from behind. She leaned back into it, and the dragon propped her up for a moment. She forced herself to stand upright and gave the Chief an unconcerned shrug. "I wasn't worried for a moment."

Stoick smirked. "Nor was I."

"I should go." Astrid turned on her heel and started to walk.

"Astrid." The Chief's voice stopped her. "He was pretty out of it, but the first thing he asked about was Toothless. The second thing he asked about was you."

"...oh, heck." Astrid breathed, but she didn't turn. A moment later she was running.

She was proud of herself. She made it all the way home before she broke down. The Deadly Nadder, always a source of fear, curled a wing around her shaking shoulders, and Astrid leaned into her gratefully.

 _ _Stormfly.__ Astrid thought to herself. __That's what I'll call you.__

* * *

Classes began a week later. Hiccup had some catching up to do, and his father filled him in. But once that was done; there was plenty of work ahead.

The Dragonriders were assembled early the next day. As always, whenever Hiccup and Toothless took off, the Dragonriders squadron was quick to follow. They flew laps around Berk, and everyone stopped to look.

After another day, the Dragonriders started taking flights of their own, without Toothless to wrangle the rest of the flock.

Astrid loved it far more than she would admit to, high above everything. Her Dragon was learning too. Stormfly had more or less learned how to handle her Rider, which turns were too tight, which way Astrid would lean, and what that meant... Astrid was slowly gaining control, and spent more time flying than she did on the ground.

But on the third night, Stormfly suddenly swung around hard and flew away from Berk.

"What? Hey, girl; what are you doing? Home is that way! Left!" She told her dragon. "Your _other_ left! Okay, this is the _opposite_ of left! Where are you taking us?!"

She was just starting to panic when they came out of the clouds. At night, the ocean was like a reflection of the stars, and in the moonlight, she could see the island. There were hundreds of small islands around Berk. This one had a few huge trees... And sitting on the edge of the island, with a tree behind him, and a sheer drop in front, was a familiar shape.

"Oh." Astrid sighed, digging a knee into Stormfly. "Traitor."

Stormfly rumbled, as though laughing at her; and came in to land.

Toothless was curled up in a half circle, asleep. Hiccup was reclining in that half-circle shape, as though his dragon was a comfortable chair, legs dangling over the side.

Astrid just looked for a while, when Stormfly nudged her hard from behind, propelling the young woman forward. She sent an outraged look over her shoulder, but went over to Hiccup anyway. "Hey."

Hiccup shifted over, making room for her. She didn't take it, electing instead to stand, resting herself against Toothless's tail, high enough for her to lean back on. The young man in question was chewing on a blade of grass, with his journal across a knee. He was sketching a new leg for himself. "Hey." Hiccup nodded. "So, um... Nice night."

Astrid grunted.

Long silence.

"Are we okay?" Hiccup asked finally. "It feels like you've been avoiding me, since I woke up. Well, except for that first morning of course." He slowly smirked. "You know, when you kis-"

She punched him in the mouth and went back to admiring the view.

Hiccup nodded, trying to count his teeth. "Right. No need to talk about that."

Astrid grunted. _Why are you acting like this?_ She raged at herself.

Hiccup held out a retractable telescope, and she took it. "What am I looking at?"

He pointed, and she looked. A nest of Dragons was down below. Young ones, just a few months from hatching. They were writhing against the rocks and broken shell fragments. "Wow. Never seen ones this young before." She whispered.

"See them rubbing on the rocks? They're scratching." Hiccup explained to her. "They do that, because as they grow up, their skin flakes. Scales, see? Their skin cracks open, and new scales grow underneath to fill in the cracks. That's why their hide is so soft as they grow up, because their scales haven't hardened yet."

Astrid nodded. "What about after they grow, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were asking about Barf. Seems that where the necks join-"

"Barf? They named their dragon Barf?" Hiccup winced.

"Barf and Belch. Each head got their own name. It's Ruffnut and Tuffnut. They're Nuts." Astrid excused. "But anyway, they told me that their dragon has been chewing at its own skin. Not enough to draw blood, but the skin is getting cracked and flaky. The twins are actually a little worried they did something."

Hiccup didn't seem surprised. He lifted Toothless' paw gently. His skin was flaking too. "I took a look at some of the dragon hides from the successful hunts? They have the same thing around the joints. I think it's a natural effect of having armored hides. Not flexible, so the surface layer cracks. Stormfly will probably have the same thing."

"I have been avoiding you." Astrid suddenly confessed. She had changed subjects so fast, Hiccup almost didn't know what she was talking about. "I'm sorry."

"Was it something I did?"

"Well, yes. If you include laying comatose after saving all our lives, and nearly dying, then yeah; it's all your fault." Astrid growled. "I thought you were _dead_ , Hiccup! And then your dad goes and starts treating me like your girlfriend, and he did everything short of welcoming me to the family, and the whole thing just freaked me out!" She got all the words out in a rush.

Hiccup seemed stunned. "Girlfriend?"

"THAT'S what you take from all that?" She nearly screamed.

The screech woke Toothless up from his nap and the Dragon lurched upright, sending Hiccup to the ground with a thump. Toothless tilted his head, looking at Astrid in surprise, tongue lolling out a bit.

"The whole 'nearly dying' part is the problem, Hiccup! If you-" She cut herself off. "No, I don't care. Just..." She punched him again, really hard. "Don't ever do that again, alright?"

Hiccup rubbed his bruised shoulder smiled warmly, being all sweet and kind in a way that made Astrid's teeth hurt. "I'm sorry I scared you." He said gently. "I promise, I plan to do as little 'almost dying' as possible."

"Good." She said shortly. She gave Toothless a look. "That goes for you too, y'know. He gets brave when you're around."

Toothless nodded obediently. She was never sure how much he understood.

Astrid returned to Stormfly. Hiccup kept pace with her. "Y'know, the reverse is also true." He reminded her. "We both know that of the two of us, you're the one more likely to volunteer when something dangerous happens. I don't want you to die either."

"Deal." Astrid nodded. "I should go." She slung a leg over her dragon's neck. "Class tomorrow?"

"Yeah, though I have no idea what I'm meant to teach you." Hiccup sighed. "Too bad."

Astrid paused, half seated on her Dragon. "Too bad? What do you mean?"

Hiccup gave her a cocky smirk that he didn't really feel. "Well, usually after you're done telling me that I had you worried, and after punching me, I get your tongue down my throat."

Toothless found that to be very funny. Stormfly craned her neck back to give her rider a look. _Is that a challenge?_ She seemed to be asking.

Astrid set her jaw, stepped down from her dragon, strode two feet over to Hiccup, and proceeded to plant a swift kiss square on his mouth. He responded instantly, arms going around her. Astrid kept going a lot longer than she had planned to. She started to pull away when the now-familiar feeling of Stormfly's beak pressing into her back kept her where she was... and after a moment, she didn't care.

At last, they broke for oxygen, lips bruised, eyes dark. Hiccup had a big goofy smile on his face. "Wow."

Astrid pushed him away. "Right." She said firmly. "That's what happens when I think one of us is about to die. And we agreed we're not doing that any more. No more almost dying."

"Right. We agreed." Hiccup said, still a little dazed.

"See you tomorrow."

"Right. Tomorrow is good."

Astrid quickly jumped back into the saddle and Stormfly took off. She craned her neck back to look at her rider with a gleam in her eye.

"Shut up." Astrid told her, flushing. "Watch the road... clouds. Whatever."

* * *

The Arena had been converted. The pens had been made more comfortable, the dorms were now a barracks; and the classrooms were all being redesigned. Astrid wondered if Stoick was seeing the future of the Drangonriders as a combat team.

Most of the Riders slept there. Hiccup still had his room at the Cheif's house. Astrid was the only one that knew for a fact that his father expected him to be here. Hiccup spent his nights out on the island that she had visited the night before, observing the wild dragons. _Just him and Toothless._ The thought made her sad, and even a little jealous.

"There!" Ruffnut shouted, searching the sky. Astrid looked, and saw a small black blur shooting across the ocean, powering straight for them. Toothless came in like a lightning strike and flew along the ground so fast they couldn't make him out. When he touched ground, he kicked up a cloud of dust so thick that the entire squadron was covered and blinded.

Once she got the dust out of her eyes, Astrid couldn't help the snicker at the sight of Hiccup. His eyes were pasted shut from the wind and his hair was pointing in all directions. He also had a few bugs splattered across his face and chest.

Tuffnut busted a gut laughing at him as he tried to get his hair to lay flat, spitting out bugs. "Right. Toothless, that may have been a touch too fast." He forced his eyes open blearily. "Astrid, is it me, or is the ground spinning?"

"It's you." She told him. He wasn't making any reference to the night before, and she was glad for it.

After several minutes, he managed to get himself cleaned up, and considered his attentive audience. Four young humans, three dragons. Four, if you counted the Twin Headed Zippleback twice. "So." Hiccup said nervously. "I'm meant to teach you all about dragons. What do you want to know?"

Silence.

"I'm serious, guys. There's a lot of ground to cover!" Hiccup insisted. "Where do we start? Because there's us riding them, and there's everyone else in town being friends with them, and there's crews wanting to put them to work. You tell me, where do we start?"

Silence.

"Fine, I'll go first." Astrid rolled her eyes. "Let's start here, then." She declared, waving Stormfly over. "What do you think of my harness?"

"Problems?" Hiccup looked closely at Stormfly.

"Gobber made it while you were out. He based it on the one you made for Toothless, but it's only half working. Stormfly doesn't respond to the reins, only to my balance. Stormfly isn't a Night Fury, so-"

"Yeah." Hiccup was suddenly 'at work'. He gently took the harness of Stornmfly, and started pulling the buckles apart. "The problem is that Hiccup's harness wasn't just to give me a place to sit; it was also to take over the job of his tail fin. You don't have any control, because Stormfly's an entirely different dragon, with a full tail, no need for pedals at all..."

Astrid didn't bother to say anything. Hiccup was in that strange zone he fell into whenever he was working a project. He stopped blinking, if he was even aware that he was talking, he wouldn't remember what he said. His hands were working like a tireless machine, back and forth across the harness, adjusting things to fit the design in his head.

Astrid couldn't help the stare. He became an entirely different person. No doubts, no self-deprecation, no nerves. Just total focus. She sometimes wondered if she looked that way during training.

Hiccup suddenly looked up at the rest of them. "All right. Everyone get measuring tape, paper, pens, and plenty of that calfskin that they make leather from. I'm going to give you guys a lesson in making Dragonrider saddles. They have to be custom made, and I nearly hit the drink when my harness failed mid-flight, so you need to know how to repair them on your own."

* * *

"What do you think?" Hiccup called across to her.

"Feels good!" She called back. She had lined the underside of the harness with calfskin, making it softer against the Nadder neck. The reins were responsive. She tugged gently, and her dragon turned gracefully. "Nothing like riding a horse, though."

This was true. A horse responded to the reins, but couldn't fly. Flying a dragon required an entirely different set of commands, since they moved in three dimensions.

After helping them with their harnesses, Hiccup had taken everyone for a flight to test them out. Each one had to be custom made, since each dragon was individual in size and shape.

"I still can't believe Fishlegs' harness works." Astrid called back. "He's bigger than Meatlug, and somehow they can keep up with the rest of us."

"And they say people don't look like their pets." Hiccup joked.

She laughed. It was the third time she had laughed in her life. Somehow, up here, keeping a steely gaze on her face seemed impossible, and unnecessary. Far above the ground, she was above it's problems too.

After the flight, Hiccup had talked them through what to do in emergencies. Astrid had volunteered to demonstrate an emergency and pulled one of the straps on her harness, dropping from her saddle mid-flight. Stormfly had caught her, of course, and everyone watched while she repaired her harness and resumed flight, all without pausing to land.

It had been a harrowing day, as every Rider insisted on doing the same thing. They'd nearly lost Fishlegs, but his skull was harder than the rock he'd landed on, and he quickly did it again, this time getting it right.

It had taken them half the day, but they'd figured out what they needed. After lunch, they had returned to the village, and taught villagers to create working harnesses for the dragons carrying loads. It made the trained dragons far more comfortable, and they worked all the better for it.

But now, as the sun set, class was dismissed for everyone. Hiccup had returned to the sky, and Astrid went with him, more to keep flying than to spend time with him, though that was more enjoyable than she'd admit.

They returned to the island.

As soon as they'd landed, Hiccup released the harness, and Toothless wriggled free. An instant later, he had pounced, knocking Hiccup flat. Astrid would have been quick to attack a week before, but Toothless did nothing but give him a playful lick across the face. Hiccup was giggling before rolling them both over. Astrid knew that the dragon had let him do it.

Stormfly was watching them with bright eyes. Astrid was watching too. It was impossible not to be amused, but... She glanced over at Stormfly. Her own dragon had never been like that with her. She remembered herself then, and stopped staring, setting up a small campfire.

Toothless was up a moment later, flapping his big black wings. He reached the high branches of the trees in two flaps, and stretched out flat along it like a panther. An instant later, he was asleep.

"I... um..." Astrid gestured, but gave up quickly. "No, never mind."

Hiccup looked at her earnestly. "Something wrong?"

 _What are you going to say?_ She dared herself. _You're not loved enough by dragons? Are you really worried about that? How did you become like this?_

"How did you do it?" She asked quietly. "We fought wars with dragons. We grew up hearing horror stories, and none of us has a family that hasn't lost at least one limb. How did you do it? How did you make an honest to Valhalla Night Fury turn?"

Hiccup shrugged. "Well, that right there is the mistake everyone made." He explained, heading over to Stormfly. "I didn't turn him. I just made the offer. He accepted."

"Accepted what?"

"Love."

She heard the word and her stomach did a flip. "I'm not someone who has an easy time with that." She confessed. "I'm better at punching people than caring about them."

"Really? I hadn't noticed." He said sweetly.

She punched him again.

Stormfly swooped back down next to them, and gave Astrid a winning nudge. Astrid glanced at Hiccup, and went for it, taking the large head in a gentle hold. She could feel the warmth of the Nadder coming through her, and suddenly realized the dragon was purring. "They can purr?"

"Warble, really." Hiccup explained, giving the two of them space. "They hit a pitch that humans don't really hear, but you can feel it vibrating."

Astrid took a deep breath and laid her ear against Stormfly, listening. And then she heard the dragon gag. Astrid pulled back swiftly. "Something's wrong."

Hiccup was watching. "What happens next, just remember that you're the one being invited right now."

Astrid was about to ask for details, when Stormfly bent her head low and coughed up half a fish. Astrid stared. Stormfly nudged the fish head forward, toward Astrid. Her eyes were big and hopeful and kind. Astrid realized instantly what was happening. Her dragon was offering her a gift. She didn't glance at Hiccup. She didn't dare. She knew what Hiccup would say anyway.

Without blinking, she picked up the fish head, toasted Stormfly with it, and took a bite.

* * *

The two dragons had flown around the sky in circles, wheeling and gliding with each other. Their riders had found a place where they could look up, but after several minutes, it started to strain. Hiccup lay flat, looking up at the sky. After a moment, she lay down too, feet pointed in the opposite direction.

"You did better with the fish test than I did." Hiccup told her after the two dragons settled in for sleep.

"My gran had cats, to protect her grain stores from rodents." Astrid said. "One day, I was staying with her, and one of the cats brought a dead mouse into my room while I was sleeping and put it on my bed right in front of me. I yelled at the cat for bringing it into the house. But my gran, she told me off the whole morning. She said when an animal presents you with a kill that it could have eaten for itself, its an act of loyalty. The cat was earning his keep." She smirked. "I told gran that maybe the cat brought rats because it figured that I'd never be able to catch one on my own. The cat was making sure I didn't starve, which was the most affection that cats have for people."

"Dragons aren't like other animals." He said. "They're smarter about who they side with. That loyalty isn't based on imprinting, or pack mentality, or mating habits; or anything else that makes animals protect each other. That's something they have in common with humans. That's the key. Understanding that is the key."

"They think like we do?"

"I don't think so. But even if you don't understand how their mind works; if you can understand their heart, you can offer them unconditional love."

They were both still laying on their backs in the grass, hands behind their heads, gazing up at the sky as it turned from sundown into nightfall. "Why can't humans do that, Hiccup?" She asked reflectively, far more philosophical than usual. "Why don't humans give each other unconditional love like that? Do we just not understand each other?"

"I'm not so sure we don't." Hiccup rolled to one elbow so that he could look down at her. "My dad, he's still in love with my mom, even fifteen years after she's gone. Is that bad, or just..."

She said it with him. "Unconditional? I don't know. Maybe." She sat up, half looking at him, half at the stars.

"What are you thinking?" He asked quietly, sitting up to look at her.

"I..." She licked her lips. "I was thinking that I don't understand how your mind works. The things you do, the things you see when you look at the world. But I think I understand your heart." She sniffed. "I spent all my life training to be a warrior. I never trained my heart to do anything at all. I'm sorry."

He seemed surprised. "Sorry? For what?"

"I think, sometimes, you'd have managed better with someone more like you." Astrid sighed, showing vulnerability for the first time. "All the effort I put into becoming a dragonslayer. I made myself someone who would kill monsters, and we needed someone who could love one."

Silence.

Hiccup lifted a hand, fingers out, palm down. She watched his hand, and recognized it. It was the same gesture the riders made when first reaching for their Dragons, wondering if the gesture would be received well, wondering if they'd get bitten instead.

Astrid craned her head forward and leaned into it, resting his fingers against her hair.

"I don't think you're lacking at all." He said gently. "And I think we're managing just fine with what we've got." He smiled. "And as for the dragons, well... They were the enemy for a lot of years. There's going to be fear. Even hate. But would you let anyone hurt Stormfly?"

"Never." Astrid said instantly, actually a little surprised at how naturally the answer came.

"So if the perfect Dragonslayer can say that, and my father can say the same... I think we're okay." Hiccup promised. "In fact-"

She craned her neck and kissed him quickly. She pulled back a moment later, watching him for a reaction.

"First time you've done that without punching me first." He commented.

She punched him.

"That's better." He leaned in and kissed her again.

* * *

Classes worked in stages. First, Hiccup would teach Astrid, then they would both teach the Dragonriders. Then the Dragonriders would teach the villagers.

Every day, the village was being remade with new information. Hatcheries were set up, barns and perches were incorporated into the town designs.

Every night, Asrtid and Hiccup would meet at the island, and compare notes for the next day. Neither of their families were waiting for them, since the rest of the Riders slept at the Arena, now the home base for the Dragons and their riders.

But every so often, The Chief went looking for his son.

* * *

"Hullo."

"GAAAH!" Hiccup jumped out of his skin. He'd been trying to sneak into his room, but his father had been sitting in the dark beside his bed. "I thought we had a deal about the lurking."

"Viking's don't lurk. They lie in wait." Stoick said lightly. "How is Astrid?"

"What makes you think I know where she is?" Hiccup tried vainly.

"One, I am not an idiot." Stoick listed on his fingers. "Two, Stormfly is not on her usual perch, which means she was out there somewhere, and if she didn't go with you, then odds are your Toothless found her quick smart just to show off that he could... and three, you've got her lipstick all over you."

"Astrid doesn't wear lipstick." His son shot back with dignity. "There are maybe two people in the whole village that do, and warpaint doesn't count."

"That's right." Stoick grinned. "Number three was a test. You can be smart and still be gullible; and I'm glad to see you're not." He rose to his feet. "She's a fine girl, Hiccup. Pretty, too."

"Nothing happened." Hiccup promised. "At least, nothing that-"

"Son, if it wasn't for teenage vikings slipping off to have time away from their parents, half the village wouldn't be here; includin' yourself. You're a man now; and even with the blood of so many Viking Chieftains in your veins, I've never known you to be the brawling, drinking and wenching type. Astrid's something special."

"She is." Hiccup agreed.

"She'd make you a fine wife."

Hiccup gagged on his own tongue. "Dad, I can't even get within three feet of her without her punching me first."

"If you can't pay for every kiss and smile with a swift punch to the jaw; then you're not fit to marry a viking bride." Stoick said grandly. "But that's not why I'm here."

"I know I'm out late..."

"With a Night Fury along? You're probably safer out there than in here." Stoick chuckled. "No, I wanted to speak with you about the villagers." He stroked his beard. "We need to get the others involved."

"I agree." Hiccup nodded. "Waiting for us to say something isn't going to work. They have to do it themselves. They have to be involved."

Stoick nodded. "How do we do that? Because some of the men are looking for Dragon Mounts, now that their ships are destroyed. But that's only half the villagers. I don't want a split. This whole village was geared toward Dragon Defenses. If they weren't fighters, they were making weapons, or providing food, or testing readiness. We need something for everyone."

"I have a few ideas. Let me get on it tomorrow." Hiccup nodded.

Stoick nodded.

Hiccup paused on the stairs. "You really like her?"

"Like her? Son, she's my great new hope!" Stoick grinned. "After all this, you'd never be with anyone who didn't ride a Dragon too, and that narrows it down to Astrid and Ruffnut."

Hiccup choked on his tongue again, and Stoick left him alone.

* * *

 **AN:** _Read and Review!_


	2. Or A Dragonrider

"Today's lesson!" Hiccup said brightly. "Dragon care! There's more to it than just feeding them!"

Ruffnut raised a hand. "Claws!" She shouted.

Everyone stared at her blankly.

But Hiccup understood completely. "Ruffnut is correct!" He gestured at Toothless who obediently raised one of his paws. "Dragons claws never stop growing. They're like fingernails that way. Dragons wear down their claws by sharpening them on things."

"Like walls." Ruffnut agreed.

"Furniture." Fishlegs added.

"The cat." Snotlout added.

"So, we need-the cat?" Hiccup glanced over at Snotlout in alarm and quickly shook his head. "No, never mind. The point is, Dragons know they need shorter claws, because they don't retract all the way. If they walk on them, they're going to shred the whole village, plus themselves." Hiccup pulled out a pair of shears. "This is the same kind of shears they use in the butchers workshops. They cut bone, so with luck, and a bit of elbow grease, we should be able to do this."

Everyone got to work. There was a brief scuffle between the twins over the shears, despite the fact that there were seven other pairs.

"Now, guys? Look at the claws carefully!" Hiccup called to them. "There's a vein that runs where the claw joins the skin on the underside. It's part of the nerve ending. Very important that you avoid that completely or-"

Hookfang roared in sudden shock, making all the humans jump. Snotlout jumped like he'd been bit by something... and a moment later he was, almost gulped down by Hookfang, who was mad enough that smoke was curling out between his fangs. Snotlout had been swallowed up to his knees, and was fighting his way back out again.

"Uh, we should help." Fishlegs offered.

"In a minute." Astrid was watching, amused.

Hiccup smiled ruefully. "Yeah, so like I was saying, watch out for that vein on the underside of the claw. It's a... sensitive spot." He explained, making his way over to Hookfang. He spent a few minutes calming the huge predator down, and then another few minutes convincing him to spit out his rider.

Meanwhile, the others were seeing to their dragons, and Astrid was trying to figure out how to do her part. A Deadly Nadder was a two legged dragon. All the others had no problem extending one paw at a time while their riders dutifully spoke soft words, being soothing and gentle with their noble partners.

Astrid had never felt so awkward in her life. "Okay, try putting your foot up here, and- No, not like... the other leg first... Careful, you'll trip over my foot-OW!"

The Nadder jumped back. She didn't know how to balance on one foot without extending her tail and wings for balance, and she couldn't do that without knocking Astrid over.

Astrid chewed her lip. "Okay, let's try that dance again, huh?"

Stormfly blinked her big eyes slowly, not sure what her rider wanted.

Astrid dropped, getting into position under her wings. "Left leg, up." She said clearly.

The left leg, raised, and Astrid brought up the shears...

And Stormfly started resting her weight against Astrid, trying to balance. Her wings swept low, wing-hooks pressing into the ground. it was an impossibly awkward position, and Astrid lunged, trying to hurry the work along-

Snip! The shears were angled wrong, glancing off the claw, and Astrid let out an 'Oof!' as her Dragon overbalanced, sitting on her. It felt like someone had dropped a boulder on her back.

"Remember, go for straight cuts." Hiccup told his class brightly. He hadn't noticed that Astrid was now a dragon-seat and she was glad for it.

Stormfly stood up and Astrid crawled back to her feet, recovering. "Okay. We suck at this." She told Stormfly. The Nadder gave her the big sad eyes, and she knew her Dragon agreed. "So. Do we ask for help, or do we-"

"Am I interrupting?"

Everyone glanced up at the Arena's viewing platform and jumped to their feet. The Chief had arrived without anyone noticing. Hiccup told the others to keep going, and went over to have a brief conference with his father. Whatever they were talking about, it was bad. The Twins quietly started taking bets on what it would be, and Astrid tried to read her boyfriend's lips. _Boyfriend? Did I just think that?_

Astrid took a deep breath and glanced at the others. The twins had finished trimming their dragons, and were now trying to trim the horns on each other's helmets, having a vaguely reckless swordfight with their shears. Snotlout had sorted himself out and was now polishing Hookfang's shorter claws with the edge of his belt, giving them a shine. Fishlegs had long finished his task, and was now trimming his own fingernails,

Stormfly was the only one still with long, difficult claws. She grasped her dragon by the horns on her crest, and made Stormfly look her in the eye. "We'll get better at this." She promised. "But for now, can we keep this a secret?"

Stoick nodded to his son and headed back toward the village. Hiccup came back to join them, his mind clearly elsewhere.

"Problem?" Astrid asked, as though everything was fine.

"The Soothsayers have been busy." Hiccup sighed. "Caterpillars climbing higher on tree branches, the sheep have their heavy coats early; and the crops are shedding their seeds months before harvest."

"Heavy winter." Fishlegs said immediately. "Or a blizzard."

"Or both." The twins said in unison.

"My dad wanted to know how we felt Dragons would handle a blizzard. They are reptiles after all, but they have their own furnace..." Hiccup already had his journal out, making some notes. "It's hard to guess. We know they don't hibernate, because they still attack during the winter."

"Yeah, but only on clear days." Astrid reminded him. "The wind screwed up their flying." She got back to the point. "Without the ships... I mean, the village used to get dismantled every other week by dragon attacks. The same thing is happening right now because we're still trying to wrangle them. But without the ships, how much trouble are we in?"

"Well, dad didn't say it, but I think we may be in some peril here." Hiccup nodded. "The Dragons eat a lot of fish, and most of the fishing fleet is gone. We've picked the island clean of anything we can use for firewood, and with our ships destroyed, getting the firewood in has proven difficult."

"And with a blizzard on the way..." Astrid shivered. "Going to be a tough winter."

"Firewood?" Snotlout snorted. "It's like you guys have forgotten that we all have dragons now. They _breathe_ fire!"

"Yeah. Gobber said that." Hiccup said brightly. "He decided to demonstrate by having one of the Live-In Wild Dragons light his smelting oven for him." He cleared his throat. "By the way, Fishlegs; he's moving some of his Blacksmithing tools in with you until they rebuild his workshop."

"Right." Fishlegs wasn't even surprised.

Hiccup nodded. "Look, I planned to have a stable, or a perch, or somewhere for Toothless to stay. But in the meantime; I'll have to rig the attic into a second loft-space for him."

Snotlout was surprised. "You're keeping Toothless at your house?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I?"

The other riders all traded looks. Then they looked to Astrid, hoping it would soften the tone, coming from her.

"Fine, I'll say it." Astrid rolled her eyes. "Hiccup, we all love our Dragons; I mean... They're great. But they have all the subtlety of a landslide, and where they go, they tend to knock things over. Having them in the house would be like... like..."

"Like turning a dragon loose in your house." Snotlout volunteered.

"I'm not talking about giving him the guest room." Hiccup told them. "But if there aren't a few perks to having a human partner, why would they stick around?" Hiccup said brightly, turning to his own. "Am I right, buddy?"

Toothless' head tilted... and he promptly pounced on Hiccup. Astrid took a step forward on instinct, when Hiccup caught one of Toothless' fins, and the dragon warbled, rolling them back over playfully. Hiccup pounced, scratching the underside of the dragon's neck; and Toothless went a little loopy, legs waving in the air.

"Oh nice, that's very dignified." Hiccup snorted at the antics of his bonded dragon.

Toothless didn't care, rolling around on his back, tongue lolling out.

Astrid was staring blankly. So were the others. They just stared at the last of the Night Fury, rolling around like a puppy.

"What?" Hiccup demanded.

Astrid spoke first. "Nothing." She sent a pointed look to the rest of the group. "Absolutely nothing."

* * *

They returned to their island that night, just them and their dragons. Astrid confessed what she'd wanted to say.

"When I was a little kid, I told my gran that I didn't wanna eat my vegetables, because they tasted yucky. She told me that if I ate them, I would taste yucky too, and then the dragons wouldn't want to eat me. I was twelve before I realized that not eating sprouts would not automatically make me the Night Fury's favorite snack of choice." She came over to Toothless, still gaping. "My Dad told me that Night Fury could hide in any dark corner, large or small. He told me that Night Fury were lurking under my bed to hide from a noon sun..." She waved a hand at Hiccup. "How are you _doing_ this?!" She wailed, not for the first time.

Hiccup looked at her. "I don't know how else to day it, Astrid." He waved a hand back and forth for a moment. "Look, you remember when we went after the Red Death? We were all in the arena, and I opened the cages, and just like that, everyone had paired up. What made you pick Stormfly?"

"I didn't." Astrid whispered. "She just... she came to me. The others all knew. The twins even knew which head was going to be their spot. I was hanging in the back, not sure... And Stormy just walked up to me. I didn't know, but _she_ did."

Hiccup nodded. "These Dragons... they're the same ones we had in the Arena. When I was doing this by myself, keeping Toothless hidden... I realized that everything we thought we knew about Dragons was wrong. But I wasn't just studying them. They were studying us. Something about you had Stormfly convinced that you would be a good partner."

"Wish I knew why." Astrid said to herself. She looked back at him. "What was the real answer? About the blizzard, and the village?"

"Simple. We've got ten ships left instead of fifty. Two in for rushed repairs." Hiccup said grimly. "So everything we usually get during, or leading up to winter? Divide it by five."

"What can we do?" Astrid demanded.

"I don't know, but if we want the Dragons to stay, we have to do something." Hiccup sighed.

Astrid chewed her lip. "The Red Death had all the dragons in the area ripping up the entire ocean looking for food to deliver to him. Maybe we can train them to bring us food too?"

"Maybe, but what happens when that blizzard hits?" Hiccup commented.

"Oh. Right." She sighed. "Bottom line?"

"In another month, it's going to be us or the dragons." Hiccup said plainly. "And right now, my father is using everything he's got to keep the village from fighting over the last bits of timber we've got. We need to build fishing boats, we need to repair buildings, we need to put our dragons somewhere... And we either build more boats or we get more firewood, or we catch fish. We've got nothing in between."

"Sheep." Astrid said. "When they started attacking the flocks, we scattered them around the islands. Someone would have kept track of which islands..." She smiled real big. "Maybe we can't carry a whole load of trees dragonback, but we can carry sheep. They've been doing it for as long as I've been alive."

Toothless and Stormfly sat up on their haunches instantly, delighted with that idea.

"You like that idea, big guy?" Hiccup said playfully to his friend. "You wanna play tag with some sheep? You wanna go give some future sweaters and lamb chops a heart attack?"

Toothless licked his face. **SLURP!**

Astrid looked to Stormfly, uncertain. The Nadder looked at her expectantly. Astrid put a fixed smile on her face, and batted awkwardly at her dragon's beak. Stormfly didn't even bother to dodge... or respond.

"That's cool." Astrid held her hands up peaceably. "I'm just going to... stand here... awkwardly, while they act like idiots."

Stormfly rumbled and hooded her neck to nuzzle Astrid. _Oh, good. I'm getting pity affection from a Dragon_.

She looked back at Toothless and Hiccup, who were still rough-housing like cubs. _But that's them. They're great together. I mean, it's not like anyone else is that close with a dragon, right?_

* * *

Astrid came to the area early the next morning. Most of the dragons still stayed there at night.

"Hey, guys?" She asked as she came in. "Do you think it's weird how close-" She broke off as she saw them all. "Guess not."

The twins were playing keep-away with a shield, tossing it back and forth like a Frisbee. Their two-headed dragon was trying to catch the shield, dancing back and forth. Their heads were actually winding around each other, both heads having a blast as their riders ran back and forth around the dragon, tying it in knots playfully.

Snotlout was balancing on one foot, ten feet in the air, on the tip of Hookfang's nose. The Monstrous Nightmare was up, balancing his partner... Right up until the moment he tossed the teenager back like a snack. Snotlout was gulped as deep as his knees, but nobody seemed particularly surprised.

Fishlegs was over in the corner with Meatlug, and Astrid felt her jaw drop open when it became apparent that they were actually composing a poem. Fishlegs noticed Astrid staring at him, and explained, as though it was obvious. "Meatlug has a very sensitive soul."

"Of course." She winced. _Odin help me._ "Where's Hiccup?"

"Right here!" Hiccup strode in. "All right, gang. Today's lesson will be at the harbor."

* * *

There were more people at the harbor than Astrid expected, given that they had very few ships left.

Stoick was there, surrounded by some of the more experienced sailors. Astrid sent a glance to Hiccup and realized what was happening. The Dragonriders were doing their part to help the fishermen of the village.

"You kids can fly dragons!" Stoick barked. "If by 'fly' we mean: Hang on tight while they do all the work. But like it or not, dragons are working animals right now!"

Hiccup had his arms folded, well back from the Quartermasters. He was letting them handle it.

Gobber was tying ropes to the platform corners, and Astrid suddenly realized what she was looking at. It was the simulator.

"Vikings are made for life on the sea!" Stoick declared. "When Odin himself reaches down from the halls of Valhalla and smashes the wind and waves, we do not run back to our harbors!" He gestured at the platform. "We can hope you lot have your sea-legs, or we can teach you how to get over it. Hiccup, care to lead by example?"

Hiccup was looking at Stormfly. Astrid noticed him gazing at her dragon. In particular, he was studying the Nadder's claws.

 _ _He knows.__ Astrid felt a thrill of panic go through her. __He knows I couldn't do it. He knows I chickened out.__

Hiccup was kind enough not to call her on it in front of people. Instead, he went to the platform, and stepped onto it, settling into an easy crouch. Stoick gestured, and four of the harbormasters took the ropes, pulling the platform up off the dock.

"Now, a nice easy day on the ocean is like a steady flight on a gentle breeze." Hiccup told his class. "But the next few months are going to be a good bit harder. As much as we'd like our dragons to hibernate on bad days, they're the only defense we still have." Hiccup sent his father a smirk. "Neither snow, nor sleet, nor wind, nor rain..."

Taking that as their cue, the harbormasters started hauling on the ropes, and Hiccup fought for balance as the platform under him suddenly lurched up and down. It twisted and turned on it's four ropes, and Hiccup surfed the board. Astrid was surprised at how well he was keeping up. She had never really seen him as the most agile of the group, especially with one leg missing.

 _ _It's experience.__ She realized. __He's still the most experienced flyer in all Berk. He's got more flight time than the rest of us put together.__

Inwardly, she smirked. __If I had a secret Dragon partner, I don't think I'd ever want to land either.__

The Harbormasters were laughing themselves silly within an hour. The Chief's son got a standing ovation when he held out the entire ride. Astrid came in second, holding out until the last thirty seconds before she fell. The Twins insisted on being tested together, and then spent the entire time trying to make the other fall over. Snotlout lasted half a minute before he puked. Fishlegs fell off the platform before it started moving.

Astrid noticed people were watching from the dock, and it suddenly seemed like a comedy to her too.

Hiccup was pacing a bit, and speaking with each rider between their turns. "Keep your center low! You ever see a chicken fall over? Keep your butt between your ankles! Don't try and guess which way it's going to move! Remember, this is practice for when you're a thousand feet in the air! You won't be able to guess which way the wind will hit you, so don't try and guess what the guys pulling ropes are going to do here! Your dragons have wings, you don't!"

Hiccup was running back and forth between the riders, who were all trying to twist themselves into knots, walking back and forth, trying to hold a pose like they were straddling a dragon. It was oddly hilarious, especially when Tuffnutt said something to his sister. Nobody heard what it was, but she spun around and decked him for saying it.

And then the dragons got involved, and Astrid couldn't take it seriously any more. Watching the dragons trying to mirror their pose was just too ridiculous.

But Hiccup was watching the whole thing with an unusual amount of focus. He was staring at Stormfly's feet. Astrid realized what he was looking at, and her stomach dropped. Stormfly's claws had torn up the wooden panels of the dock as she walked on them. And none of the other dragons had that problem, because their claws were trimmed.

She looked up at the watching Vikings, as though for rescue. Stoick the Vast had joined them, and he looked torn between wanting to laugh, and wanting to yell. She understood the problem. Hiccup's instructions had been to get people involved to win them over to the idea of having Dragons present in the village. Hiccup's orders were to find a way to make dragons valuable in a time of tight resources... And he had the entire village laughing at him while his squadron of Dragonriders just tried to keep from falling over.

She steeled herself and went over to talk to Hiccup, who was running his fingertips along the straight gouges of Stormfly's footsteps. "Listen-"

"I know how to help with the lumber." Hiccup said suddenly. "I know how our dragons can speed up the work."

* * *

"Well, I'm seeing it, but I'm not believing it." Stoick said with a wide grin.

Down at the Dock, a well polished assembly line was working diligently. After less than an hour, they had the rhythm down to a science. A fresh oaken tree was carried off the lumber ship, and brought to the dock. As soon as it got there, the tame dragons would rake their claws along the length of it, tearing up the bark and branches like a knife through butter. After less than a minute of this, the bark was stripped away, leaving only the usable wood behind. There was a team of lumberjacks on it quickly, painting the rough spots and leftover bark and knots with fish paste. Almost faster than they could mark the tree, a pack of Terrible Terrors fell on the paste, their tiny teeth and claws doing the work of sandpaper as the critters went after their tasty snacks.

It was happening as fast as the lumber could be unloaded. By the time the cargo was unloaded, most of it was ready to be turned into houses and planks for ships.

"You were telling me that the most time consuming part of a lumberyard was turning it from a tree to a log." Hiccup said quietly, watching the whole thing. "Doing it this way can save you days of work."

"Days that we can spend building new fortifications." Stoick nodded. "Very nice."

"Fortifications?" Astrid asked. "Why not ships?" The comment came without thinking, and she suddenly realized she'd just contradicted The Chief. She ducked her head instantly.

"I wish we could." Stoick sighed. "But the fact is, we can't build ships that fast. It's not a question of manpower. The lumber will only do so much so quickly. I can either build our defenses back up, I can rebuild the fishing fleet, or I can increase our lumber production. With dragons to collect animals for food, I have to take the chance that we need the firewood more than the fish."

Hiccup pulled out his notebook. "I've been running some numbers on that. How much we eat, plus how much the dragons eat, minus how much the ships bring in at this time of year, plus whatever the dragons can scrounge." Hiccup shook his head. "Even with generous rounding up, we won't have enough to go around by the time winter comes."

"Well, that can't be right." Astrid said automatically, looking to the Chief.

Stoick was notably silent.

"Can it?" Astrid was stunned.

Stoick glanced around. "Not here."

* * *

They went back to the Chief's home, and Stoick took off his helmet. "You're both sworn to secrecy."

They both nodded.

"I mean it."

Astrid spoke the old blood oaths, and Hiccup did the same. Stoick looked sick. "Those numbers of yours, Hiccup? Gobber and I came to those conclusions two weeks ago. In fact, you're far too optimistic. You and your Dragonriders have done some incredible things, but you've only gotten us somewhat closer to what we need to make it through winter."

"How far apart are we?" Astid asked in worry.

"We'll have enough food for six out of ten people. Which is fine, because we'll only have a quarter of the firewood we'll need to avoid freezing to death." Stoick shook his head. "And all because I demanded we put every ship and every warrior we had out to hunt the nest."

"Dad, it's not-"

"Not what? Not my fault?" Stoick demanded. "True or false, son? If I'd sent you and Toothless _alone_ against the damn Red Death, we'd have the same result and still have a harbor full of ships?"

"What's done is done!" Astrid interrupted, because she knew the answer to that as well as they did. "What if we didn't need firewood? Dragons are plenty warm."

"Warm to the touch, but unless you can get them to sit still all winter, that won't exactly take the place of a firepit. Gobber's been trying all week to find some way to let our dragons take the place of our firewood. We've been trying for generations to find something that can contain Dragon fire. Our strongest shield only gives you protection from _one_ shot. We either have enough food, or enough firewood. We can't have both. As it is, the ships we're building to collect more resources are going to have to be chopped apart again before winter ends."

"Look, if there's one thing I've learned from all this, it's that there are resources we never knew we had." Astrid argued. "There's got to be something we can do. Something we never thought of before?"

And they both looked to Hiccup. He was staring out the window at Toothless.

Hiccup looked like he was going to laugh. "I... I don't know what to do."

Silence.

"Well, sure you do." Astrid said in a very small voice.

"There... is something we can do." Stoick said quietly. "We've got two options. Either we double up every living space in the village and use half our buildings for firewood when it gets tight, or..."

"Or we get rid of the dragons." Hiccup said, and Astrid barely recognized his voice. "A dozen dragons eat as much as quarter of the village."

"Dragons can survive winter in the wild." Stoick pointed out. "They always do."

"When they have time to pack on weight. When they have time to find secure nests. The dragons you're talking about are staying here because of us. So we use them to gather food and prepare lumber until they're exhausted, and then we kick them out when the winter comes. Is that the plan?"

"Hiccup-"

"Is. That. The Plan." Hiccup said, about as mad as Astrid as ever heard him sound.

"Hiccup, the only other option is we raze half the village, or we hope that the cold snap freezes a third of our people to death so that there's enough for the rest of us." Stoick nearly implored him. "If there's an alternative, please; tell me what it is."

Astrid looked sick about it. Hiccup was actually about to cry. She could see hot tears gathering at the corner of his eyes, and took a step toward him instinctively.

Hiccup shied away and bolted. By the time Astrid made it to the door, he and Toothless were already airborne.

Stoick looked after his son. "No point going after him. Nothing catches a Night Fury."

"I know." Astrid sighed. "How long until we have to make a decision?"

"Another two weeks. At most. Gothi read the runes. We have two weeks until the first blizzard hits. After that, we might get a respite, or we might not. We can still gather all the wood and animals we can find before then." Stoick said softly.

Astrid found herself staring at Stormfly. The dragon was still a little awkward around her. __Would it be kinder to go out there and kick her in the face?__ Astrid tortured herself. __Break her heart now, and I won't have to break my own.__ Aloud, she turned to the Chief. "Why didn't you tell him the rest of it?"

Stoick looked at her, unreadable.

"If we have to get rid of the dragons, you can't have an exception. Not for Hiccup, not for me." Astrid almost accused him. "The whole village looks to Hiccup on the subject of dragons. If they've gotta go... Hiccup has to be the first one to say so."

"He'll never forgive me. Even if we find a way, he'll never forgive me for even thinking it." Stoick whispered.

"Asking him to send away Toothless is like asking him to open his own wrists."

"I know. But it doesn't change facts. Feed and protect yourself and your own first, feed and protect the enemy never. The Dragons aren't the enemy any more, but you don't side with anyone over your own." He glanced at her. "If it comes to that, will you help me convince him?"

Astrid felt the question hit her like a punch in the gut. She was staring out the window at Stormfly again. _Could I give her up? Could I tell myself I don't care about her enough to go hungry?_

Astrid felt her face harden. "I go where my Chief commands me."

"Not always." He pointed out. "There was a time when I told you to stay, and you chose to defy me because Hiccup asked you to-"

"To do something crazy." She finished.

Stoick the Vast looked suddenly ancient. "Every Viking knows that his time on this earth is a temporary one. But when you're a chief... you can't act like it. You have to plan for forever. I'm using up everything I've got left to make it to spring, and praying to every god we have that Hiccup can pull another miracle."

"Well, I can't speak to any of that." Astrid said softly. "But if you want to ask the impossible, I think Hiccup's the one to ask."

She left him then, without being dismissed. It was her second act of defiance to the Chief, and she didn't care.

Stormfly almost came to attention when she returned to the dock. It was so... happy to see her. _When did you start thinking of Stormy as 'it' again?_

 _ _Roughly the same second you realized you might not be able to keep her.__ She answered herself. _Coward._

Stormfly looked at her rider expectantly, and Astrid quickly made the call. "Find Toothless!"

* * *

Hiccup hadn't gone back to their island. Astrid flew for hours, trying to find some trace of him. She loved flying more than she'd ever loved anything, but she tried desperately not to. She was already preparing herself for the day when she'd have to stop caring about Stormfly.

She eventually tracked him down in the northern island chain. Stormfly landed near Toothless, but Hiccup didn't even look in her direction.

 _ _He's still mad.__ She steeled herself. "Look-"

"They don't have the flaking problem here." He cut her off tightly. "The dragons here just don't have the problem. Why not? Why does where they live matter so much? This is supposed to be something that is common to all their kind, and yet in this one place, they seem to have a solution. And I don't know what it is. I'm meant to be the expert. I should have the answer, but I don't."

Astrid knew what he was really talking about. "How long have you been watching these ones?"

"About two hours." Hiccup sighed, handing her the telescope. She looked down at the water and found a flock of young Zipplebacks sunning themselves in the afternoon light.

Astrid looked at him, chewing her lip. "Hiccup-"

"I won't let it happen." He said tightly. "I'll leave Berk with Toothless and I won't stop. A Night Fury can outrun the wind. Winter will never catch us. And if that means I never come back, I can live with that."

Astrid squeezed her eyes shut. "We may not have that choice."

"Feed and protect yourself and your own first." Hiccup told her roughly. "If dad decides we're not part of his own, that's his call."

Silence.

Astrid almost smiled. "I had no idea how alike you are." She said quietly. "It's amazing."

"How?" Hiccup said, and suddenly he was more morose than angry. "I love him, Astrid. And I admire him too. He's... I spent my life wishing I could see something of him in the mirror. But the one thing I've got in my corner is..."

"I know." She shushed him gently.

"And now that he finally made peace with that, I find out it may all be for nothing..."

"I know." She shushed him again. "You ever hear The Chief talk about Berk? About the people, the markets, the statutes, the cliffs... He gets really invested. Really passionate. It's the same way you talk about Dragons. It's not that he's against Dragons. He's for Berk."

"As it should be." Hiccup said softly.

"Right. So if he has to choose..."

"Astrid..." Hiccup said coldly. "I'm not throwing a tantrum here, I mean it. The day you and my father send Toothless away, I go with him."

Astrid felt sick to her stomach. _What kind of life has he had, that a Dragon is the only thing he can't give up? He'd give up his home, his father, his... what? What else is there? Me? Does he even have me, really? I've got one foot out the door with Stormfly already. Can I really promise him anything?_

As if he was reading her mind, he asked the question. "Astrid... would you come with me?"

She didn't have an answer for him. She couldn't even meet his gaze, staring down at the Zippleback nest. The eggs were submerged, as they were back on their island. The two Zipplebacks were pushing sand over the eggs, and once they were finished, they curled around each other. Four heads, coiled like a rope. It was a family unit, recognizable to anyone watching. "Why bury them on a beach?"

She was changing the subject, and he knew it, but he answered her anyway. "Keeps them safe from parasites, hides them from predators, keeps the eggs insulated. Dragon eggs need a lot more heat than birds. They use water pools too. Not the ocean. Too big, the eggs would chill." He turned her chin to the left and right, and she could see the sand had rising steam. "They're buried there, too. All along the beach."

"There must be dozens of egg clutches."

"Believe it or not, they rotate. They move the eggs so that each has time in the warm water, each has time in the open air... There could be a hundred eggs down there. Not all of them make it." Hiccup sighed. "Why don't these Zipplebacks have the same flaking problem, Astrid? Why can't I solve it?"

"You can't know everything, Hiccup." Astrid told him, trying to make it better and not having a clue how. "You know more than anyone else, but there's still... I didn't even know this island chain was here until I came looking for you." She reached out again, and rested a hand on her shoulder. It was like stone. _He's still mad because he knows I'm not 'his own'._

Hiccup rose and went over to the dragons, looking sadly at Toothless, who was making faces at Stormfly. Astrid joined him. The scales under her wings were getting worse. The flaking was starting to look painful, and Stormfly had been scratching at her wings during the night. "The cold is getting to her already." Astrid sighed. "I know it's normal, but she's just so... uncomfortable."

Hiccup chewed his lip. "Not easy, to soften dragon skin."

"We don't want to anyway. Dragons are tough. We don't want to change that about them, do we?"

"Tough isn't the problem." Hiccup said quietly. "The problem is, when tough hurts her more than it protects her. Dragon scales don't let anything through, but that can make it hard for her to... be comfortable in her own skin."

 _We're not talking about dragons any more._ She knuckled his shoulder. "Stay on topic."

"I'm not talking about us." Hiccup said easily. "I see you with the other riders. I see Fishlegs and Meatlug going everywhere together, and the twins playing peekaboo with Barf and Belch... and then I see you, looking like the kid who never gets picked to play with the others." He put a hand to his chest. "Speaking as someone who's intimately familiar with that feeling, I hate the idea of it happening to you."

Astrid said nothing. Didn't even look at him.

"I know that you care about Stormfly. I'm certain of that... how sure is Stormy?"

Astrid said nothing.

"Y'know... the loyalty of dragons amazes me. We're nothing like them, but..."

"It's not that!" Astrid said tightly. She had her arms folded, coiled in on herself. She glanced at the sleeping dragon and gestured for him to follow her.

Once they were a decent distance away, she plead her case. "I... I care about Stormfly. That's new for me." She sniffed. "My family kept horses. Not a whole lot of use for them on Berk, but they were beautiful. When I was little... My father told me I could have one of the mares. I raised her from a foal. Hand fed her, hand brushed her, tucked her in every night... When I was ten, the Dragons came. I was there just in time to watch a Whispering Nightmare take her head off in one bite. I went running to my dad, and he was trying to get the horses out of the barn as it burned. They wouldn't leave, and... he ran in to force them out. The barn fell on him." Hiccup rested a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged him off. "You know..." Astrid said tightly. "I asked for your help with Stormfly's skin."

"I know."

"I know that things are different, and I know dragons were never evil; just hungry or being forced by the Red Death. But ever since I was ten, I've told myself never to need anything that a dragon could eat or burn." She spread her arms wide. "It's years later now, but... I've never had so much as a stuffed toy since that night. I can't even come near you without punching you first. I don't know how to love a dragon... And Odin help us, I'm already getting ready to send her away."

"You'd do it, wouldn't you?" He said with sad certainty.

She felt his sheer disappointment hit her. "Stoick says that we're going to have to choose soon: Do we feed our dragons, or our families? And it's _because_ of Dragons that I don't have a family." She took a shuddering breath. "I told you once, that I thought you'd be better off if I was more like you. Just... Be patient with me?"

Hiccup gave her a soft smile. "I always will be. But I told you: I wasn't talking about us."

Feeling her stomach drop, Astrid turned around. Stormfly was awake, having heard the whole thing. Her head had drooped. She started to slink away-

"No!" Astrid blurted, and sprinted over to her dragon, nearly tackling her. Her arms went around the long neck, and pulled the two of them tightly together. "No, I'm not mad. I could never be mad. Not at you! It was a long time ago!"

Stormfly pulled away from her. Astrid felt the rejection much harder than she wanted to, and held on tightly, not letting her get away. "No! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

After an eternity, the Nadder relaxed against Astrid a bit. The dragon was purring again. Stormfly curled her tail around Astrid's leg. Astrid just held on tighter. She sent a glance back to Hiccup, but he was already flying away on Toothless. She was glad for it. She needed privacy, because this was hard enough.

"I don't know if you can understand me." Astrid said softly. "But... I don't know if it matters, because I have no idea what to say."

Stormfly's tail suddenly hooked higher and tighter, and Astrid felt herself leave her feet. Stormfly rolled to the side, so that Astrid was nestled against her side.

"I'm sorry I was mean." Astrid whispered. "Bad things are happening, and I don't know what's going to happen to you. But I do care! I do! I'm so sorry. I'm not like Hiccup, but I'll find a way to prove it."

She could feel the wing around her, like soft leather. She could feel the heat of the dragon against her... and the cracks in the dry skin under the wing. She brushed against it, and heard Stormfly growl. She pulled her hand away from the sore spot, kicking herself again. "Sorry. I'm making it worse, aren't I?"

Stormfly pulled her legs up, and Astrid suddenly recognized the posture. __If we were upright, this is how a Nadder gathers her young together on cold nights. The Dragons know the cold is coming... and Stormfly is playing mother.__

The thought made her want to laugh and cry at the same time. She hadn't had a mother in a long time. "We should go home."

* * *

The Dragon flew her back to Berk, but not to the Arena. Stormfly took her back to her house.

Astrid gave her Dragon a look. "My place, huh?"

Stormfly just blinked those big, beautiful eyes at her slowly.

"You know I haven't slept here since my first day of official training, right?" Astrid told her. _Is that a message? Is she telling me to go home and not come back to the Arena, where she and the Dragons live? Is Stormy dropping me before I can do it to her?_

A blast of cold air made her shiver at the thought, but she went inside. She left the door open. It was a little too narrow for Stormfly's wings, but the Dragon reached her long neck into the house to join her rider. Astrid went through the house, opening the windows so that Stormfly could peek in anywhere she liked.

"Wow. I haven't looked at this stuff in months." Astrid sighed. Most of her mother's things were in boxes, or right where she'd left them when her grandmother died.

Stormfly crooned a questioning note, and Astrid took the items out of the boxes. Her mother's pendant, a gift from her father, carved from a tooth of the first dragon they ever killed together. Stormfly growled a little at the sight, and she put it away.

Next was her mother's dress. Stormfly craned her neck forward and nudged her from behind. Astrid held the dress up to herself. "Not me, is it? Is it ugly?"

Stormfly reached out and pulled down the dress away from her.

"I agree." Astrid nodded. "I loved my mom, but if we weren't inside, I'd have you burn it." She looked sideways at Stormfly. "I don't suppose you eat wool?"

Stormfly snorted. Astrid wasn't sure how much language a Dragon understood, but if they could get a joke... _Odin, did she understand me talking to Hiccup about sending her away?_

Eager to change the subject, Astrid pulled out her mother's music box. She flipped the antique open, and a soft clockwork tune started to play.

Astrid shivered. She hadn't heard that tune since her family had burned. "I'm not someone who thinks about this stuff very often." She confessed to Stormfly. "Give me an axe to swing any day."

Stormfly crooned and hung her head. She was looking at the dress, and Astrid noticed the scorch marks around the bottom of the dress. Her mother had worn the tooth-pendant, and the wool dress on the day of a dragon attack.

"Wait..." Astrid breathed. "Are you... Do you feel bad about it too?" The idea had her stunned. Most of the Dragons in their training arena had been captured alive during attacks. _Stormfly might have been the one to attack my mother_. "You're my friend, Stormy." Astrid said gently, as if afraid to set the Nadder off. "We were the victims... And so were you. The Read Death was forcing you. But then we worked together and saved both of our people from the same enemy. We did it by not hating each other."

As she spoke, she turned the music box over and started it playing again.

This time... The music box played a duet. Stormfly started crooning along, almost exactly in tune.

"You can sing?" Astrid was stunned, and quickly wound the music box again. The Nadder hummed along, swaying her head in time with it.

Astrid suddenly found she was smiling hugely. She hadn't heard this old folk song since her family had burned, and now the dragon was singing it to her.

Astrid chewed her lip as the tune ended, and reached into the box again. She pulled out a pan-piper's flute. "Don't tell Hiccup I can play?"

Stormfly chirped willingly. It had been years since she'd played the pan-flute, but she still knew one or two songs that her father had taught her on nights when they'd tended to the horses. It was a sweet, gentle tune about love and home and family...

And before she was halfway through the tune, she was playing a duet with her Dragon.

Astrid was smiling like she'd never stop as the tune slowed. Outside, she could hear a pack of baby Zipplebacks crooning duets with their own twin heads and the idea was so... Incredible that she couldn't help but laugh out loud, for only the fourth time in her life.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Astrid had loaded whatever things of her mothers she still had into a shoulder bag, and was flying again. They went higher than anyone in Berk would see.

It was the middle of the night, and they were high enough to touch the clouds. With few clouds in the sky, they glowed in the moonlight. A billion stars turned the sky into an incredible carpet of sparkling lights, and the ocean shone like a mirror on the sky. Berk was small below them. Her entire world, just a speck in a mirror that reached from horizon to horizon.

"Wow." Astrid whispered. Stormfly was keeping pace with the wind exactly, not even moving her wings. There was no wind when you part of the wind, and the night was calm and silent around them. "It's almost hard to believe the ground matters at all." She whispered to her dragon.

Stormfly rumbled back in agreement.

Astrid sat up on her harness, and pulled out the pan-flute again, playing the sweetest, most relaxing tune she knew how to play. Stormfly sang along, and the two of them floated, with clouds glowing brightly around them and stars shining, above and below, just them and the music they made.

When the song faded, Astrid bent lower and wrapped her arms around Stormfly's neck. "I've never flown at night. Thank you for this."

Stormfly chirruped happily.

"Let's go home."

* * *

Stormfly went into a lazy downward spiral, and brought them into land, back at the Arena, where the dragonriders lived.

"So, not my house this time?" Astrid teased as she unslung the harness. "I guess you've decided to keep me, then?"

Stormfly nudged her side, and Astrid nudged back. She unslung the shoulder bag she'd collected and started putting her mother's things away in the stable she shared. Most dragonriders lived this way. A cot, a table, and a cupboard, with a large space for their dragons to settle in.

She put the music box down reverently, the pipes next to it. Her mother's things included a few jars of makeup. Astrid wore warpaint, but she'd left her memories in a box too long. Then she noticed the largest jar. "Oh..." Astrid suddenly felt better. "I know what to do!" She promised. "I know how to make you feel better!"

* * *

Stoick was still half asleep when he answered the door to Astrid. "Astrid, d'ya know what time it is?"

"Either very early, or very late." Astrid nodded. "I need to see him."

"You're supposed to sneak up to his window without me finding out."

"If I was here for that, I would have." Astrid didn't even blink. She pushed past him. Hiccup wasn't in his room, but she didn't even look, going straight up to the loft. He wasn't there either.

"He didn't come back." Stoick said from behind her. "I'm honestly not sure he ever will."

"He hasn't given up on us." Astrid promised. "We still need him. In two weeks, maybe. But it's Hiccup. He always has an idea, makes a plan... Running away from home without preparing just isn't his style."

"Maybe, but I'm not so sure that this is his home. In fact, I don't think it's been his home for quite a while." Stoick said grimly. "But wherever he is, Toothless is with him, so I'm reasonably sure of his safety."

"Me too." Astrid nodded. "Listen, I need you to..." She suddenly remembered she was speaking to the Chief of the Village and rephrased it dramatically. "There's something that the dragons need to stay healthy, and it's something I know the village has in surplus."

"There's not a lot of surplus around, Miss Astrid." Stoick reminded her. She tossed him her mother's jar, and he sniffed the contents. "Really?"

"I'll need barrels of the stuff as soon as you can spare it."

"Really? This is good!" Stoick beamed. "The Healers have been worried what they're going to do, now that the Dragons aren't keeping them busy every week. Between attacks, they spent their time making burn salves and the like. If I can tell them that they still have to do exactly what they've been doing..." He spun around, far faster than a man his size had any right to. "I'll speak to Higgs at once!"

"It's not even dawn yet!"

"He has the watch tonight. If I find him sleeping, I'll cut his tongue out! Good work, Astrid! See if you can find Hiccup, and tell him I have something to offer him and his Dragons, beyond a deadline. Tell him to come home. It's getting cold. I'll leave the door unlocked in case you find him before I get back. I'll be back in half an hour... unless I come home and there's a sock on the doorknob or something."

Astrid flushed bright pink as Stoick strode out, laughing too loudly for so early.

* * *

She found him eventually, back on the northern island where the wild ones lived. She saw the faint glow of the campfire first. Toothless was curled in a semi-circle, the same way he did on the island, with Hiccup reclined in the hollow of his wings. She saw him from above as Stormfly came around for a landing and she suddenly felt cold. They looked so perfectly comfortable together, even on a cold night. He had a blanket, and a campfire, burning low. She could see the remains of a meal cooked recently, two fish; picked clean; and a few tubers dug up and cooked in the embers.

 _ _He could do it.__ She warned herself. __He could really ditch the whole village and go live with Dragons.__

She came over and shook his leg to wake him up. "I know why the wild Zippleback don't have the flaking problem!"

Hiccup blinked, suddenly wide awake. "Tell me."

"Because most of the wild ones feed on fish. At least, they do north of Berk. The others all get their food from us. Lamb, beef... human. But the ones up north all feed on fish exclusively."

Hiccup snapped his fingers. "The fish oils! The fish oils in their diet is why the wild ones don't have flaky skin!" He looked at Astrid. "But we feed them fish."

"We feed them fish _we_ catch. But all the fish we have salted has had the oils pressed, so that we can make the lotions and burn salves!" Astrid gestured back toward the nest. "These ones get them so fresh they're still flopping around. And that's how to fix the flaking problem!" Astrid pushed a small jar at him. "It was my mother's. My gran never threw any of her things out!"

"What is it?" Hiccup cracked open the jar and sniffed it. "Lotion?"

"The same stuff we used to sooth burns after the Dragon attacks." She confirmed.

"The fish oils!" Hiccup suddenly saw it. "The main ingredient in the lotions are oils!"

"From fish, from plants, anything that can hold a scent and sooth skin. I used the entire jar on Stormfly, and she's been halfway to Valhalla ever since." Astrid confirmed, eyes shining.

Stormfly was only too happy to agree with that one.

Hiccup softened. "So, there's been some progress, then?"

"Yes, and you are a huge pain in the neck," She slugged him, with a big smile on her face. "Thank you for pushing me into it."

Hiccup looked so proud of her. "You figured this out, all by yourself, huh?"

Astrid gave him a look that warmed him, even against the wind. "I had a good teacher." She pulled her collar up tighter around her face. "You want to head back?"

"Nah, I'm good for now." Hiccup settled back against Toothless, who hadn't even woken up.

Stormfly took her cue from the Night Fury and settled low on her haunches. Two legs meant she slept like a hen, and not a cat, but she settled her wings around herself like a cloak, and opened one wing to make a place for Astrid.

A few days before, she would have begged off, but Astrid didn't even hesitate, settling against her dragon's side. Stormfly craned her neck to curve around Astrid's shoulders. She felt the exaggerated warmth of her dragon at her back, and a soft leather wing over her to keep the warmth in. The weather grew colder than usual for that time of night, and Astrid remembered the storm was coming. But she and Stormfly were plenty warm and comfortable with nothing but each other.

* * *

They slept a while, and Astrid was awoken a few hours later, when Hiccup had gone over to the smoldering fireplace and built it up a bit more. He glanced over at her, noticed she was awake, and gave her an easy smile.

Astrid slipped out from under Stormfly's wing. She came over to Hiccup as he stoked the fire a bit. "Yes, by the way." She heard her voice say quietly. "The answer is yes."

Hiccup blinked. "What was the question?"

"The day we send Dragons away from Berk... If you go with Toothless, I go with Stormfly."

He blinked, then his face bloomed into an amazing smile. "Really?"

Astrid nodded, tears gathering in the corner of her eyes. "I can't give her up. I've spent most of the day preparing myself to go back to the way things were, but I can't do it. I can't send her away."

Hiccup stared adoringly at her for a moment, then reached forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. One that she finally had no trouble returning.

She hugged him so tightly that they both overbalanced, and fell to the ground, sitting on their knees, but not letting go.

"I cannot tell you how happy I am to hear you say that." Hiccup smiled against her hair. "Feels like I've finally got you on our side."

"You've had me on your side since my first flight, but it was a while before I realized 'our side' means you and Toothless." Astrid almost laughed. "And me and Stormy."

Hiccup pulled back to kiss her warmly. The first time he had kissed her instead of the other way around. She returned it, nothing held back. But when they broke for air, she put a hand over his heart and looked him in the eye. "We never talk about it." She said softly. "If there was something you wanted to say to me, you'd better do it now, when I'm in a mellow sort of mood. It doesn't happen often."

Hiccup took a deep breath. "Are you my girlfriend?"

"Yup. You my boyfriend?"

"Sure."

She punched him hard... and then kissed him swiftly. When they broke the kiss, she suddenly realized she was alone with her first official boyfriend, a hundred miles from another human being, in the middle of the night. "So..."

Hiccup licked his lips, very aware of the same thing. "So."

They both looked back at their dragons. Both of them were awake, and blatantly staring; Toothless with his tongue hanging out a bit. Stormfly started crooning Astrid's pipe tune quietly. Toothless looked swiftly at Stormfly, delighted, and tried to hum along, completely tone-deaf.

But Stormfly responded by crooning louder, and Hiccup took the hint, holding out a hand to Astrid. She looked vaguely scared of the gesture. "I don't really dance."

"No, you just do back-flips and somersaults." He teased. "Which of us has a peg-leg, here?"

They didn't exactly dance, but they swayed a little, just enjoying the moment, as dawn slowly broke over the island.

"I've spent my whole life trying to be stronger than anything dragons can toss at me." Astrid whispered in his ear as they swayed. "And I was. I was stronger than their claws, stronger than their fire... But not their love. When a dragon loves you, there's nothing you can do but love them back."

Toothless had been following the tune with disturbing intensity, before throwing his head back and trying to bellow out the same song. He was wildly unsuccessful. But his bugling did wake the Zippleback down below, who were keeping watch over their nest.

"Anyway, we'd better get back." Astrid told him. "I told your dad about the lotion, and he's going to get us some more. I don't want to leave it too long before Stormfly gets her next rub down. And she still needs her claws checked."

"I'll help." Hiccup smirked. "Nice, isn't it? Feeling needed by a Dragon?"

"Or a Dragonrider." Astrid said softly as she went to her dragon, her heart more full than she could remember it ever being.

* * *

 **AN** : _Read and review!_


	3. Light The Torches

The next day's lesson was little more than Stoick providing barrels of lotion, and the Dragonriders rubbing down their partners. More than soothing their dry, itching skin, the oils soaked into the scales and made them gleam in the sun. The dragons shone like polished statues; and they loved every minute of it.

"Don't treat this as medicine!" Hiccup explained. "This is part of dragon care. Scales are hard and sturdy, but they don't flex. If we can soothe or soften their skin between the scales, then the dragons are more comfortable, their armor doesn't crack as they grow, and that makes their movements smoother, more aerodynamic-"

"Arro-wha?" Tuffnut tried to follow that.

"Clean dragons fly better." Astrid translated.

And so it went. The Dragonriders oiled the skin and wings of their dragons, rubbing them down. For all their speed, dragons were still flesh and blood. When they worked their wings hard, their wings wore out, their joints got sore... With Riders, they'd been carrying loads for the first time in their life, and every time they flew, they went through smoke, and dust, and clouds and bugs...

Astrid was quite surprised how much grime she scrubbed off Stormfly's wings. But scrubbing them clean and working the ointment into the cracked skin and sore joints made all the difference. She looked up now and then, noticing that some of the townsfolk were watching. Some of them looked jealous, that the dragons were getting pampered in times like these. But others were gazing, outright impressed. _How many get the chance to really study dragons? Without getting eaten, anyway..._

Astrid glanced over at the others and saw they were all having the same reaction. The Dragons never looked so content, like they'd just had a day at the spa. Their skin gleamed in the sunlight, colors brighter and sharper than ever before. All the riders were amazed, because none of the dragons had seemed particularly dirty, but as the dust was washed away, and their muscles loosened up, none of the riders had ever seen their partners be happier.

As if to demonstrate, once the 'treatment' was done, the Dragons took their riders for another flight. They flew further and faster and more nimble than ever before. Some of the larger dragons helped with the lumber yards, hauling logs around.

"I didn't know the dragons had that kind of muscle." Stoick commented.

"They didn't." Astrid told him. "They'll never be able to fly those fallen trees around, and they can't really cut one down without blasting it to toothpicks first, but you give them some deep muscle massage, you loosen up their joints..."

"Well, however they can help; I'll take it. Those ships and that lumber is going to be our only hope." Stoick told her. "But don't pretend that you did this because it makes the work more efficient."

"Dragons are the only thing we've taken out of the 'minus' list and added to the 'plus' list in as long as I can remember." Astrid argued. "We know what we gain out of this. The dragons have to be convinced too. Just remember, whether we send them away or not, if they decide to leave on their own, we can't force them to stay without tipping off another war."

Stoick agreed. "I'll keep the lotions and such coming." He looked down. "Hiccup?"

"I think he'll be back tonight." Astrid guessed.

Stoick looked down. "I hope so. It's not an easy thing to learn that your family may prefer the company of dragons."

Astrid didn't have an answer to that. Part of her wondered if Hiccup would choose Toothless over her too.

* * *

Astrid woke up with a sharp gasp. The air was cold. Cold enough that her blanket wasn't cutting it. Cold enough that she could see her breath. She got up from her cot, went over to Stormfly. The Dragon had wrapped her wings around herself and Astrid didn't hesitate to join her in the nest. Stormfly wrapped a wing around her without even waking up.

 _Going to be a bad winter_. Astrid thought, and fell back asleep, snuggling into her dragon.

* * *

There was no lesson the next day. Most of the Riders had jobs supporting other workshops, and every hand was needed. But not Hiccup. Maybe it was because he was The Chief's Son, or the first Dragonmaster of Berk; but nobody wanted him working close by. Where he went, the Night Fury followed. Astrid didn't like it, but understood their reaction. Stoick had ordered her to stay close to his son, and she wasn't sure she liked his reasons why; but they both knew Hiccup did his best work when nobody was watching.

She didn't know where Hiccup was hanging up his artificial leg these days, but she returned to 'their' island every day after class or work. It took a few hours, but eventually she saw them. Toothless was a carved shape of shining obsidian, his skin shining against the clouds.

Toothless came in to land, and before Hiccup stepped down from his harness, Toothless had already bounded over to Astrid, forelegs up expectantly. Astrid held up her hands with a big smile. "Nope. Sorry. No lotions left. Fresh out."

Toothless' eyes got real big. Astrid melted. "I'm sorry, I don't have any left! You and the other preening peacocks cleaned us out."

"A point that did not go unnoticed." Hiccup said dryly. "Word's getting out about the supply problems. Spending the day helping Dragons preen doesn't exactly win us friends."

"It's not just about looks. Healthy dragons work longer, comfortable dragons work harder, fly better... Humans get treated for cuts and bruises and sore muscles when they work hard, why not dragons?"

"I agree, I'm just saying, we've got two weeks to solve a pretty major problem here." Hiccup was still at his journal as she paced around him, stretching out her legs after the flight. "Maybe we could look into capturing a few Seashockers."

"Water Type Dragons?" Astrid blinked. "I've barely even seen them."

"True, but if we can get one or two on side, then the fishing ships are all available for firewood." Hiccup chewed on his stylus. "Or maybe we can train the squadron to fly in formation. Low to the water, I bet we could drag a net..."

"So, I guess all is right with your world of problem solving, huh?" Astrid smiled affectionately at him. "Is this the same guy who spent most of yesterday moping over a wild Zippleback nest, not knowing what to do?"

"Having you as an official girlfriend makes most things easier to deal with. Kiss me again! It gives me all kinds of ideas." He drawled, then flushed. "That sounded less dirty in my head."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "We've got two weeks. Two weeks were all you needed the last time you had to save Berk; and that time you had to do it alone. We can do a lot in that kind of time." She gave Toothless an affectionate scratch behind the ears. "Right, big guy?"

Toothless rolled to his feet, big green eyes looking her up and down. Then, a two foot tongue flashed out, and gave her a long lick, from her hip to her hair. It was sticky enough that she felt her feet leave the ground for a second. "Gah!"

Hiccup smothered a laugh when he saw the left half of her hairstyle pointing straight up. "I guess you haven't eaten your vegetables lately." He needled. "And it doesn't wash out."

Astrid set her jaw, and jumped forward, wrapping her arms around him. _If I'm going to be slimy, so is he._

"Gah! No! You're sticky! Toothless! Save me!"

The dragon yawned at his human's antics and decided to play tag with Stormfly instead.

Astrid laughed. They both stunk of sulfur and rotten fish. Toothless' spit was sticky enough that they were almost glued together... and she froze. She'd kissed him before, and they'd ridden together... But for the first time, they were holding each other close. It was strange, all the things they had done and seen, neither of them had actually held the other for anything less than a fatal drop.

And looking up at him, she could see the same thoughts on his face. "I'd kiss you again if you didn't smell so bad."

"Y'know, there are some hot springs on the island. But there's only one big enough to share" Hiccup offered. _Odinson, did I really just say that?_

"I thought it didn't wash out." She said softly.

"Well... you'd have to soak for a while."

"I won't peek if you won't." Astrid offered back. _Sly Loki, did I really just say that?_

* * *

"Mm." Astrid hummed happily, neck deep in hot water. "Hiccup, let's never tell anyone about this island. Ever."

"Deal." Hiccup didn't even open his eyes. The pool was wide enough to give them both space, and they sat on opposite sides. "I'm glad we did this."

"Feeling pretty suave, are you?" Astrid snorted. "Just remember, you didn't charm me into this. I smelled like dead fish and burnt rocks, because your dragon thinks he's a puppy." She smirked wider. "In fact, pretty much every time you've had a shot at getting anywhere with me, your dragon just did something to win me over."

"First flight, first kiss. Dragons. Best wingmen ever." Hiccup murmured, and she splashed him.

They sat that way a while, when she suddenly thought of something. "What makes the water hot? None of the other islands in the chain have hot springs."

"Take a look under the water and find out." Hiccup said softly. A moment later his eyes bulged. "I just heard that the way it must have sounded, and- Can we just pretend I didn't say that?"

Astrid had turned bright red, and it wasn't the hot water. "Yeah. Sorry I asked." She blinked. "Wait, what's under the water?"

"Promise not to peek?"

Astrid took a deep breath and submerged. She could feel the water was hotter at the bottom of the pool and she crouched down to look. She swept some of the mud away... and found a hard smooth surface. She surfaced instantly, meeting Hiccup's gaze. "Dragon eggs?"

"They're scalding hot." Hiccup nodded.

"I saw the steam rising from the sand at the Zippleback nest up north, but I assumed they were hot because of their parents. We know that dragons use their fire around their nests a lot."

"We've almost never found a nest with live eggs in it. Everything we know about the nests came from after they hatched." Hiccup nodded. "That's why my father was so desperate to find the Hive. They never stay at the nest after they hatch. Now we know that it was because the Red Death was summoning them as soon as they could fly. With him gone..."

Astrid sank into the water up to her eyes, suddenly looking up to the sky in fear.

"No, they aren't here." He assured her. "The mothers lay the eggs underwater to regulate their temperature. Plus, buried underwater, they're safe from predators. The dragons hatch, already on fire from the moment they're born. The water puts them out, and they come up hungry." He saw her look. "It's safe. According to my mom's journal, the mother gathers food for months, comes back near to hatching time. If the water is still hot, we've got plenty of time."

Astrid settled. "Only you would use a Dragon nest as a bathtub." She smirked. "Your mom's journal, huh?"

"Turns out I take after her." Hiccup nodded. "Wait... did you peek?"

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Hiccup, you want to feel awkward about that, or about the fact that neither of us brought a towel to the island?"

* * *

The Dragons collected wild animals from other islands in the chain. The dragons stripped the logs into usable lumber... But it was all a losing battle. Because Gothi had read the runes right about the winter. It was coming early, and it was coming hard.

The winds came with the sunset, and settled during the day. The air had chilled a lot more than usual; for that time of year. Frost was thick on the grass, even if it melted early.

Nobody said it yet, but it was starting. Every morning, the air smelled of woodsmoke, as the villagers ran their firepits and furnaces through the night to keep warm. Astrid walked through the village. Food supplies were getting more expensive. The tailors were working overtime to keep up with the demand for new pelts, fur-lined armors...

Astrid looked sickly at the stockpiles as she passed them. The firewood was already getting low. People were hoarding it for the cold nights.

"I wonder if they know, yet."

Astrid jumped, not hearing him walk up behind her. Hiccup was a klutz with a peg-leg, but she had still been distracted enough by her thoughts not to hear him coming. "Know what?"

"That we're not going to have enough. My father hasn't announced it, but he can't keep Gothi from telling people if she wants to. People are collecting extra firewood every day, and I'm-"

"-wondering if they're hoarding it." Astrid agreed. "I was just thinking the same thing."

The Chief saw them heading toward the arena, and waved them both over. "We can't get the furnaces to work as something practical. At least, Gobber can't." He reported. "We've tried a dozen different ways. You can't keep dragonfire burning inside a house. It's too... explosive."

"I know." Hiccup nodded. "I was toying with the same idea." He shifted to face them both. "You've seen how a dragon blows fire. It's like a fireball that detonates when it hits something. We try and build a fireplace that can contain something like that and start a fire... One that keeps burning longer than ten seconds without using up fuel?"

"If we could build walls that could hold back a blast of dragonfire, we'd have done it with the whole village decades ago." Stoick nodded.

"I had this idea about shifting the torches." Hiccup piped up. "Those retractable torches that we used to light up the sky during raids? If we could put them in Town Square, or something... Maybe if we make the outside warmer, we can save some firewood on all the insides. Plus..."

"-we could use dragonfire to keep the fire going, so it costs us nothing." Astrid agreed. "What about the baby dragons? Their firepower is tiny compared to the adults, we could-"

"-use them indoors." Hiccup nodded. "Gobber tried that, but here's the thing? You teach a baby dragon that it's okay to start a fire indoors, and they don't stop with firepits. Gobber did his best, and so did Toothless, but the babies don't listen to anyone; least of all us. There's a reason why I never had Toothless-"

"-light a campfire for you?" Astrid finished. "Stormfly never does either. Not without making dinner... explode."

Stoick was grinning. "Are you two aware that you've been finishing each other's sentences for the last few minutes?"

Astrid and Hiccup looked at each other with a secret awkward smile. He got over it first and made the point. "Dad, shift the torches before nightfall, and we'll have half a dozen dragons there to light them up for you."

"I will." Stoick agreed. "But you know that only buys us an hour or two per night. When the storms come, nobody will stay outside at all. It's just buying us a few days in the short term."

Hiccup started counting on his fingers. "Having Dragons work the lumber bought us a few weeks. Having dragons catching livestock bought us a few weeks. The firepits buy us a week, at most... If we can keep inching the finish line forward, we might just make it."

Astrid felt her stomach clench. She knew he didn't believe it. Stoick saw it too. Hiccup was such an earnest soul. He'd kept a doozy of a secret from the entire village for a long time, but he was still a terrible liar.

Hiccup knew he wasn't fooling anyone. "Look, if we buy ourselves enough time to... If we make it a week longer, then maybe that extra week is all we need to find a miracle."

By this time, the three of them had reached the arena.

* * *

Hiccup looked toward the docks. Along the waterline, he could see icy lines, up a few inches from the surface of the ocean. "Ice." He said quietly. "The ocean is rising."

"Not by enough to worry about." Stoick shook his head. "The ice is gathering along the shore, where it has something to freeze against; but it will thaw, until... Well, until we can't use our ships any more."

Hiccup wasn't listening. He nearly ran to the opposite end of the dock, leaning down to look closer at the surface. Ice was still stuck along the high water marks. Astrid ran down to join him. "What are you thinking?"

Hiccup looked up at her, worried. "Water expands as if freezes. That's why the ice is higher on the dock than the surface. When it thaws in the sun, it sinks back down. And the ice is coming a lot sooner than it usually does."

Astrid nodded. "It could not possibly get high enough to be a problem for us."

"Not for us." Hiccup looked downright scared.

Astrid suddenly realized. "You're worried about the nest you found."

"Don't tell my father." Hiccup said quickly, sounding desperate. "He's six inches away from sending away the dragons we already have, and if I tell him that I'm freaking out over the dragons in the wild..."

"I know." Astrid said softly. Part of her thrilled at the fact that Hiccup was confiding in her. She'd been in the dark about his secret too. Not as long as the others, but if she hadn't found out on her own, she knew he wouldn't have told her. "But Hiccup, what can you do? I mean, what can you actually _do_? Stop the tide from coming in? Stop the weather from getting cold? If you had a way to keep things warm for the eggs, I think we'd all like to hear it and use it here."

"I know." Hiccup growled. "But the nest can be moved. The parents shift the eggs to regulate the temperature. We could move the nest."

"Past the Zippleback?" Astrid blurted. "Hiccup, you might just be overstating your charm a tiny bit. You and Dragons are like family, I know that; but there's sweet talking a Zippleback, and then there's sweet-talking a Zippleback protecting their eggs. They will kill you nine kinds of dead."

"I know." Hiccup sighed.

"And you've got enough to contend with, trying to keep the entire village from freezing to death."

"I know." Hiccup sighed again.

"And anyway, you don't have to do anything." Astrid tried to reassure him. "You said yourself, the eggs get moved all the time. If the ocean was closing in, the parents would have done something."

Hiccup considered that and nodded. "I guess so."

* * *

The iron torches were moved to the center of town, and the dragons were there as the sun set, blasting the torches over and over with their fire breath. Each dragon had only so many shots, but they worked in rotation; keeping the middle of town warm as the air chilled.

Eventually, the winds picked up as the temperature dropped, and everyone had to go inside anyway.

The next morning, the smoke was heavier in the air. People were feeding their firepits higher as the weather grew colder still.

* * *

Time passed, and things got tighter. Everyone knew it was getting worse, so there was surprisingly little reaction when Chief Stoick announced the rationing. Food was going to get tight very soon.

* * *

"All right, folks." Hiccup said with determination. "No lessons. Today we have a mission: Fishing."

He'd been expecting cat-calls, or groans; but instead there was only a sudden charge in the air. They'd been waiting for this.

Hiccup tried to make a speech of it. "We all know things are getting tight in the village. For months now, we've been giving the rest of the village reasons to make Dragons part of our home. We've given them half a dozen small reasons, and it's time to get serious about giving them big ones. I don't need to tell you how serious the food situation is. I know you guys have already been doing your part-"

"Fishlegs is already down a belt loop." Ruffnut put in.

Fishlegs looked over at her. "Didn't realize you were looking."

Snotlout raised a hand. "And I'm doing my part to save firewood! I haven't had a bath in two weeks."

"We know." Everyone said at the same time.

"The fact is, our dragons eat more in a day than twelve people do in a week." Hiccup told them. "And that's never going to last with most of our fishing fleet shut down. So, today's mission: Try and take up the slack."

The twins both raised their hands. "Our dad is a fishing boat captain." Tuffnut reported. "He says this time of year, the fish are out in the deeper waters. We need the bigger boats for that. Rough seas, big nets."

"Can Dragons tow boats?" Astrid asked Hiccup.

"Rowboats? Sure. Big boats like we'd need? I doubt it." Hiccup shook his head. "The question of the day: how much can dragons carry? We've seen them tossing around tree limbs and such, but nothing like what we'd need to replace our firewood shipments." He led the way. "To the docks!"

* * *

The Dragonriders knew instantly what their mission was. The Fishmongers and sailors were bringing the deep water nets off the boats, and spooling them out along the docks.

"We've practiced flying in formation, we've practiced flying with loads, we've practiced flying close to the water." Hiccup told them. "Today we put it all into something practical." He gestured at the ropes, leading to the corners of the nets. "Our nets are weighted to get them to deep water. Our friends in the fleet have kindly removed the weights. Astrid."

Simply by saying her name, he'd handed the briefing over to her. None of them blinked, and Astrid suddenly realized she'd been promoted to his second in command. _Because I'm the best, or because he's sweet on me?_

She shook off the thought and took up the instructions. "Usually, we have the strongest dragons at the higher altitude. But if we're pulling a net full of fish through the water, we need our strongest wings closest to the water. There's going to be a lot of drag on the ropes. Snotlout and the Twins, you get the lower ropes. Me and Hiccup have the best maneuverability, so we get the longest ropes. We'll need to adjust to tension on the lines. Meatlug will be our spotter. Fishlegs, your job is to find our catch, and to watch for dangers. Anything we could hook on, spot it and give us enough time to turn. Remember, we'll be trying to steer a whole net."

Hiccup made sure they were all looking at him. "We've never pushed the limits on what a dragon can safely carry. We'll be dragging a heavy load though a hundred feet of water, and we all know that the weather's only getting worse, and the water's only getting colder. I know how wild it is, being in the air. It's a thrill that doesn't get old. But don't take any chances today. Our job is to catch something edible, and bring it home safe."

He was worried. In fact, he seemed scared. Astrid took the moment to back him up. "Guys, nobody has ever done this before. Either we pull it off, or we don't. Either way, our job is to come back safe tonight."

Everyone nodded.

"All right. We'll be tying the ropes to our dragon's harness, down along their bellies." Hiccup ordered. "It'll be less strain on their claws and legs. Get your dragons in formation, people."

The dragons were already moving, in the slow motion way that showed how purely majestic they were. Astrid loved them for it. And it was all thanks to Hiccup.

So why did the boy Dragonmaster look sick to his stomach?

* * *

Stormfly and Toothless were closest to each other in the formation. As the ropes were tied, she had the chance to have a private conversation with him. "You're worried."

Hiccup shook his head. "I'm in charge." He was nearly pleading. "Nobody, not even my dad, has ever expected me to be in charge of anything but my own boots. Every time I tinkered with a project or built something new, or had a new idea... I did it in secret. And now I'm leading the only people in the world who are like me in into real danger and... I don't even know how many of these guys can swim."

Astrid held out a hand. "You led us against the Red Death. You didn't let any of us fall. You aren't new at this. None of us are. You aren't forcing us. We've all got skin in the game."

"I know." He said softly.

"And not for nothing, but keep your chin up." Astrid said to him. "If the others see you freaking out..."

"I know." He sighed. "So, what do you plan to do about Snotlout?"

"What do you mean?"

"He keeps glancing over every time he flexes. He's checking to see if one of us is watching, and I'm betting it isn't me." Hiccup fought down a smirk.

Astrid slowly looked over in worry. Sure enough, Snotlout was showing off, pulling the ropes harder, carrying more of the weight than he needed to. And Astrid could tell, he had indeed been looking their way. Astrid very slowly looked back toward Hiccup. "Save me." She said in a tiny voice.

"What do you want me to do? Challenge him to a duel?" Hiccup tried not to laugh. "Alright people! Let's fly!"

* * *

They squadron flew for over an hour, and were barely making any headway against the wind. The weight of the net was dragging them like an anchor, and it was almost empty. Hiccup looked left and right. The results so far were not encouraging. "What do you think?" He called across to Astrid.

Astrid looked the question to Stormfly. The dragon was flapping her wings hard, and not making much headway. "We should climb once we've got what we need." She called back. "We'll never make it if we try and drag a full load of fish. Or even a half load at this point."

As if to make the point, the wind picked up, howling strongly. Hiccup waved for Fishlegs to come over, and their spotter looped back to speak with them. "Yeah, boss?"

"Fishlegs, I need you to tell me how full the net is getting. I'm not sure Snotlout can hear me over the wind."

Fishlegs obeyed. Astrid followed him down with her gaze, down next to Barf and Belch, swooping in closer to Hookfang. The net was nearly invisible in the water. The two largest dragons of their number were flapping hard, overpowering the weather with their wings...

"The visibility has me worried!" Astrid called to him. "We're not exactly moving fast, but I can't see more than thirty feet in the fog!"

"And even less under the water!" Hiccup called back. "There could be a Sea-Shocker five feet below Snotlout right now, and we'd never know it!"

Astrid smirked grimly at the thought, as Meatlug soared up between them. Fishlegs called the report. "The net is less than a quarter full."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Astrid howled, loud enough to make the wind quiet. "We've been hauling for three hours, and I honestly don't think-"

And then it all came apart. The Dragons were all yanked hard against their straps, suddenly caught. It was like all of them flew into a brick wall. The riders all jerked, hanging on tight. Astrid looked down at the others. Snotlout had slammed his head into Hookfang's handgrips. He was seeing six of everything. The Twins were in real trouble. Barf and Belch were completely tangled. Their heads were knocking together, weaving drunkenly, their wings were tangled in the zipline as they tried to right themselves. Ruffnut was hanging half out of her straps, and Tuffnut was out of his harness completely, hanging onto his dragon with one hand.

Astrid wanted to help, but Stormfly was waving back and forth like an out of control kite on a string. She was using all the strength just to hold on.

Then the net they were dragging bobbed up to the surface. it had gotten snagged on some ice, and the panicked strength of four dragons was enough to haul it up to the surface. Astruid wasn't sure if it was a sunken iceberg, or a large rock, or a hunk of debris, but it was big enough to tangle their net and haul them all down...

Hookfang was far too big to hover, but was using all the strength of his wings to keep above the ocean, even as the waves bobbed and tossed about. Snotlout waved up at them, trying to reach the rope.

"Remind me, why did I think it would be a good idea to tie the ropes to the undersides of our dragons?" Hiccup called across.

Astrid had no answer to that, but she could see the twins were in some serious peril. Barf and Belch seemed to be having an argument over how to untangle, and were trying to fly in two directions at once.

"Enough! Toothless, get us free!"

The Night Fury fired a blast of flame and lightning at the ropes. He missed. He fired again, this time at the ice they were caught on. Another miss! The dragon could not bend double, and fly, and fire, and aim straight. Not all at the same time.

Hiccup did the math quickly. The Zippleback would not survive much longer, and Toothless wouldn't be able to get free, and get within range in time. "Astrid!" He hollered over the wind. "AXE!"

Astrid blinked, not sure what he meant, when she saw Hiccup suddenly step off his dragon and freefall in the wind. With a yell, she grabbed her axe from where it was lashed, across the side of her harness. She hurled it in Hiccup's direction, praying to anyone who was listening that she wouldn't hit him with the business end of the blade.

Hiccup caught the axe, and hooked the axe-head over the rope, sliding down it to the net, still stuck in the ice. He started slashing at the ropes. The line leading to Barf and Belch went first, the twins hanging on for dear life as their dragon went tumbling as it was released.

Hiccup held onto the ropes as the ice he stood on lurched, and then he slashed again, freeing Stormfly. The ice lunged again, and he slashed a third time... Meatlug was free, and spinning over and over like a top, trying to keep Fishlegs from falling off, then Hookfang...

Toothless was cut free last, but Hiccup held onto the rope as he cut it, suddenly trailing like the tail of a kite. Without his rider, Toothless' tail was locked in the single position, and the Night Fury went into a flat spin.

"Catch him!" Astrid told Stormfly. "Catch him! Catch him! Catchhim!Catchhim!Catchhim!"

Stormfly swooped to try and grab Hiccup, talons outstretched for the snatch. _Oh, Odinfire, I should have trimmed her claws!_

Out of the corner of hey eye, she could see Toothless trying madly to walk in mid-air, trying to twist himself into a dive. His spin had tangled him in the rope, wrapping it around his tail... including the tailfin that Hiccup had made.

Astrid was looking at Toothless, and nearly missed the moment when Stormfly caught Hiccup neatly. The dragonrider had sense enough to release the rope.

"That leaves Toothless." Astrid thought aloud, looking up. The dragon was completely out of control, at the mercy of the wind... Astrid felt her jaw drop as Hookfang came from nowhere and opened his wings broadly. The Night Fury was faster and deadlier, but Hookfang's wingspan was greater, and Toothless suddenly had somewhere to land.

The Dragonriders cheered as everyone declared themselves safe, and Astrid held out a hand to Hiccup, who was climbing his way up Stormfly's leg, eventually finding a place to sit, just in front of her on the harness. "Can you get me over to-"

Astrid punched him. Then she did it again. She'd done it before, and usually followed it with a kiss, but today she just couldn't get the scowl off her face. "You get that we made-YOU MADE these harnesses for a _reason_! You just... bailed out?" She punched him again. "You stepped off your Dragon in mid-air!"

Hiccup held up his hands in surrender. "Seconds counted, Astrid. The Twins were going to tumble! Hookfang's big enough to catch Toothless, but not Barf and Belch."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't listening." Astrid said tightly. "I said: You stepped off your Dragon in mid-air!" She pointed. "And you scared Toothless grey!"

Hiccup, for once, looked more deeply at her eyes than his dragon. "Just Toothless?"

She didn't know how to respond to that, but she wanted to punch him again. Instead she just gripped his shoulders gently, leaning into him. "Let's just... get you to Toothless, and get us all back to solid ground."

Hiccup agreed, and said no more. "I think we can safely say that Dragon fishing from the air is an idea that needs a lot of work. More than we have time to give it."

"So much for that." Astrid sighed.

* * *

Hiccup made his way over to Toothless with difficulty, and they returned to land. Once on the ground, Ruffnut wrapped him up in a tight hug and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. An instant later, she had released him, and made her way back to her dragon.

Hiccup turned to Astrid, slightly panicked. "I swear, I-"

Astrid didn't even blink. "Wait for it."

Hiccup had half a heartbeat to wonder what that meant, before Tuffnut appeared from nowhere and gave him an identical hug from the other side, giving him an equally wet smack on the other cheek.

Astrid wanted to laugh at him, but she was still reeling from watching him jump off Toothless mid-flight, so she gave him nothing.

"So, not a bad job of rescuing, huh?" A voice boomed smugly in her ear.

Astrid turned to see Snotlout had snuck up behind her, striking a pose. "You know, catching a falling Night Fury, it takes incredible reflexes, amazing strength... Pretty impressive, right?"

Astrid let out a breath between her teeth. "Yes, it was. I should thank my hero properly."

"I agree." Snotlout was already puckering up.

Without hesitation, Astrid sauntered over, right past Snotlout to Hookfang, and gave the big dragon a peck on the snout. "Good catch, big guy." She then turned on her heel and rejoined Hiccup. "So, we can assume today's mission was a failure. We should tell The Chief."

* * *

"So there's no chance of it working?" Stoick looked sick.

"We're able to drag the nets, but to get any kind of depth, we'd have to ride close to the waves." Hiccup explained. "One snag, one gust of wind, and we all tumble into the ocean. Our dragons are awesome on many levels, but they can't breathe underwater, and neither can we."

"Can we just use longer ropes?" Stoick suggested.

Gobber shook his head. "No. Weight of fish and drag of the ocean makes that impossible." He looked over at Hiccup. "What about taming some of the Water-Types?"

"That was my thought too, but I can barely _find_ the sea-shockers, let alone teach them to trust me." Hiccup shook his head. "They have gills. They don't need to come to the surface at all, let alone long enough for me to offer them food or care."

"We can tow boats in the shallower waters." Astrid offered. "Toothless' blasts can stun schools of fish, make them easy to pick up. I was looking at the explosives diagrams that Gobber put together, and..." Astrid trailed off. She didn't believe it either.

Long silence. The wind howled outside, getting cooler as the sun set.

"It's getting late." Stoick said finally. "We should... light the torches."

Astrid and Gobber traded a look. That was a lie. Nobody stayed outside much any more. He wanted to talk to his son.

* * *

"What did he want to talk to you about?" Astrid asked him once they were alone.

They didn't go to their tiny island any more. The wind was such that they couldn't risk it. The other riders were at the arena, huddled with their dragons. It was the one structure that could still handle them around the clock. Astrid and Hiccup sat together on the metal ceiling of the arena, giving them a view of the village, and of the stone arena below them.

"He wanted to warn me. He's going to have to start issuing rationing orders soon, having people double up in homes... He wants us to be ready, since most of our riders will have to decide between their partners, and their kin."

"He wants to get rid of the dragons." Astrid sighed, having expected it.

"No, actually he's over that idea." Hiccup sighed. "Because once the cold snap ends and we're snowbound... the dragons are the only thing left that will be able to move. He's not sending them away any time soon."

"Then what did he want to know?"

"Other way around, babe. He wanted me to know what was happening. He wants me to figure out how much the dragons can do once the snow buries the town." Hiccup explained. "I mean, they'll be able to melt us out again, obviously, but after that? Will they be able to dry out our firewood without vaporizing it all? Will they be able to collect more livestock in such cold air?"

"I don't know, and I hate that we're going to have to figure it out as we go along." Astrid agreed grimly. "Stormfly gets in over her head, and we might not be able to recover without a scratch like we did this morning."

"I know." Hiccup sighed. "He's thinking about evacuation."

Astrid blinked. And stared. And blinked again. "Did you call me 'babe' a moment ago?"

"I-I-I believe I did." Hiccup stammered. "I mean, I appear to have done so, yes."

Astrid blinked. And kept staring. And blinked again. "Evacuation to where?"

"That's the big question. He wants to know if I found anywhere on my excursions that might be appropriate for us to hide out."

"Have you?" She couldn't help but ask.

"I've found places with windbreaks, I've found places with lots of trees, and one or two places with enough space. What we need is all of the above, and a way to get everyone there." He sighed. "So, no. No chance." He sighed, looking back to the ocean. "Astrid... the ice in the water... It's getting thicker, isn't it?"

"I suppose so." Astrid nodded. "Ice chunks aren't uncommon in winter."

"The ice will gather against itself. The ice will gather where it has something to freeze against..."

She made him look at her. "Hiccup. Forget about the damn Zippleback nest and _focus_!"

"Actually, they're not all Zipplebacks." Hiccup said absently. "I saw them moving the eggs the other day. Some of them are Gronckle eggs. I even saw a few Timberjack eggs."

Astrid blinked. "What? Coming from where? Could they have another Hive forming?"

"That was what I thought at first." Hiccup sighed. "It's like this: The Red Death kept them all in line, but with him gone now, they're all on their own, and as a result; they have more opportunities to make their own nests and start their own families... And that takes food and territory..."

"The dragons are fighting each other?" Astrid thought to herself. "They work together here because they're tame, but out in the wild..."

"Near as I can figure, those Zipplebacks have taken in the eggs from other species. Maybe they're forming alliances, maybe they just do that for protection in the wild, but... That nest has half as many eggs as we have Dragons. And all from different species." He was getting animated again, excited by the topic. "Astrid, we never saw the nests before! We only knew half of-"

She clapped a hand over his mouth. "Evacuation. Starvation. Subzero. Forget about the damn Zippleback nest and _focus_!"

He held his hands up. "Sorry! Sorry! I know, I should be focused on my team, and I should be worried about my town but... Dragons are what I bring to the table. Toothless and I flew because we needed each other to do it. I hate the idea that I'm turning my back on them now."

"Well, apparently they're willing to take in their own when times are hard." Astrid reminded him. The wind suddenly picked up, and the air dropped another ten degrees. Astrid shivered, and Hiccup suddenly focused on her, reaching out and tugging her collar up around her neck warmly. Astrid leaned into it for a moment and let out a breath. "So. We're in some serious peril here, aren't we? I mean... We either lose half the village, or we lose all of it."

Hiccup nodded. "It's not fair."

She knew what he meant. He finally felt like he belonged to Berk in some way, and it was falling down around his ears. "Hiccup... you know that we wouldn't have lasted this long without you and the Dragons, right?"

"I know." Hiccup sighed. "I don't know what to do, Astrid. I think... I think we lost this one."

He looked... smaller. Shamed. Astrid suddenly saw the resemblance between him and his father. They were both carrying the whole town on their shoulders.

And without letting herself think about it, she reached for him. He didn't notice, until her fingertips made gentle contact with his chest, directly over his heart. _His best feature._ She thought distantly to herself. He didn't say anything, and neither did she, just standing alone together. She could feel his heartbeat, and he could feel her warmth. It wasn't a particularly tender embrace, but she could feel his shoulders lifting, and his face lifting, as though she was sending strength into him with the tips of her fingers.

And then his hand came up to catch her wrist. He didn't push her away. He pulled her hand closer, till the palm of her hand was flat over his heart. He seemed... stronger for it somehow. Astrid felt her own pulse grow louder. She wasn't sure what was happening, but it felt like she was doing the most valuable thing she could do for him. She could feel him shedding the depression. She had no ideas on how to do better, but she had faith in him, and somehow she was making him feel it too, just resting her hand against his chest. She could feel warmth and light and... _hope_ growing in him, right where her fingers were.

He finally looked at her eyes. "Okay." He said quietly. "I'll do it. I don't know what, but I'll find a way."

She didn't know how she did it, but she suddenly felt more hopeful than she had in weeks. "I know you will."

* * *

Astrid thought back on the moment that night, curled up under Stormfly's protective wings. She'd kissed him passionately, but the reassuring touches, having him adjust her collar, hearing him call her 'babe'... It was suddenly making her nervous. It was so very _domestic_. It was the sort of thing that a boyfriend would do. She was someone's girlfriend, and that was new to her. New and scary.

 _There's no such thing as a cowardly Valkyrie._

Astrid squeezed her eyes against that thought. If she was brave, she'd have been honest with him. If she'd been brave, she wouldn't have to punch him first.

 _Hiccup is braver than me._

She pushed that thought away. She knew he had a crush on her, way back in the day. She knew he'd felt that way, long before she ever knew his name. In the months since then, he'd saved the entire village, remade all of Berk, brought her to Stormfly, and shown her the sky...

She felt like a liar. She felt like she was taking advantage. She felt like she was deceiving him. She'd never known his name until he suddenly had something wild and unique to offer.

 _And of all things, it had to be a dragon._

Of all things, it had to be something she had spent her whole life preparing to kill. Hiccup liked her. And he liked Toothless. And she had been ready to strike when Hiccup had done something stupidly brave...

 _Brave means accepting things you don't like._ Astrid thought to herself. _I didn't like Dragons. And now I've accepted them. I didn't even know Hiccup's name, and now I... what?_

And that was the point she couldn't shake. If she only knew his name because of the Night Fury, if she was only with him because he was the savior of Berk, and likely the next Chief... Wouldn't that mean she was using him?

The thought made her sick. Hiccup's feelings had always been genuine. Were hers?

Which brought her back to their conversation that afternoon. For a split second, he hadn't been the one with all the answers. He didn't have any answers. He didn't know how to save the town. He didn't know how to save the dragons. He wasn't the savior of Berk, of the next Chief in waiting...

And she hadn't even thought twice about reaching out to him in a way more tender and gentle than anything else they'd done before. And just that simple touch had been enough to make him shake off the darkness and find hope enough to keep going...

She still hadn't decided what that meant when she fell finally asleep.

* * *

 **AN:** _Read And Review! Next chapter will be the ending!  
_


	4. Not Without Me

Days turned into weeks, and the village was under siege by the weather. One morning, Astrid woke up to the sight of two feet of snow all over Berk. Another day and the snow was a foot deeper.

After a few weeks, the village was sealed up, buried under a blanket of snow and ice.

* * *

"Here's how it works." Hiccup said softly. "The ice has less density than water, because the liquid turns into crystals. Water spreads out as it freezes, but it's still the same amount of water. That's why it gets less dense, and floats on the surface. A cup of water that is frozen takes up more room, so it's packed less tightly than a cup of regular water."

Astrid was drifting. The dragons were responding to their dwindling food supply by resting a lot more, and their riders stayed close to their natural furnaces. Toothless slept in a semi-circle, and Hiccup reclined in the curve under a blanket. Opposite him, in a similar pose, Astrid and Stormfly did the same. Hiccup had taken to filling the cold days with whatever words he could, and Astrid wondered if he was talking just to keep himself warm.

After a while, she wondered if he was just happy to have someone listening when he talked.

"I actually wondered if we could use that." Hiccup yawned. "You drill holes into a bolder and fill the holes with water. The water freezes, expands, and actually breaks apart the rock, because the pressure gets too heavy inside."

"It happened here." Astrid offered. "A few of my water-skins split open overnight because the water in them froze."

Hiccup nodded, "Ah, but see, that's the important part. Ice has to expand like that or it won't float. If it gets cold enough to freeze ocean water, and the ice _sank_? Then the water on top of the ice would freeze too, and eventually, the entire world would be one big icecube."

Astrid moaned and pulled the blankets tighter. "Imagine that." She deadpanned. Part of her wanted to go over and curl up with him. But she didn't want to seem disloyal to Stormfly. The Nadder was part playful puppy, part adoptive mother at this point. Astrid loved her for it, but was scared too, because food was getting tight, and there wasn't going to be enough to go around for long.

* * *

Food was getting thin, and families were doubled up in homes to save firewood. Astrid knew for a fact that Stoick hadn't eaten in three days, letting the children have his share.

The Dragons stayed in the arena, with nowhere else to go. Steam rose from their skin wherever the snow touched them, their natural furnaces keeping them warm. The riders stayed close to them. Hiccup continued their training, but there was little more to teach them. What Hiccup still had to learn was far from the Island of Berk, and the wind kept the dragons grounded now.

There wasn't a lot to spare, and the Dragons were getting hungry too. They could still go to the water's edge, and walk out on the ice where it gathered. Immune to the cold, they dove for fish, but what they found was getting scarce. The fish were going deeper, to get away from the icy surface.

There was a horrible feeling of everyone holding their breath, waiting for the stalemate to break.

And then, one day, it did.

* * *

"Astrid! Wake up!"

Astrid woke up from an afternoon nap. Hiccup was shaking her awake, and then moving on to the other Dragon chambers. She gathered herself, and found Stoick standing in the passageway. Whatever it was, it was official. Astrid got up quickly, the shock of cold air hitting her as she cast aside the blanket made her gasp. "I can't believe it's getting _colder_."

Stoick nodded grimly. "I know what you mean."

Within a few minutes, Hiccup had the Dragonriders assembled, and Chief Stoick briefed them. "Before dawn this morning, one of our Shipmasters woke up and noticed the wind had dropped off. The cold was still bitter, but with the weather settled, it was decided that the fishing boats could go out safely for a few hours. Enough to bring in one catch of fish. I knew it was dangerous, but given the limited food supply, I gave the order." He sighed. "The fleet is now three hours overdue, and there are stormclouds on the horizon in the direction they went."

"Of the twelve ships we have left, nine are currently out there." Hiccup added. "With over hundred people on board. There are only three more ships to send out, which makes lousy odds for a search and rescue, unless you know exactly where to go."

"I know that flying into an ice storm is dangerous." Stoick put in. "But you're the only ones that can do this, and it needs to be done, or we might as well write off a hundred lives."

Astrid bit her tongue hard enough to taste blood. The thought that came to mind was hard to argue with. _If they die out there, we might have enough food to go around._

Ruffnut and Tuffnut were already mounting up. Astrid kicked herself. She knew that the Twins had family in the fishing fleet.

* * *

"Alright, we can't search and stay close to each other." Hiccup called. "Stay in sight, anyway."

"Spread out like a skirmish line!" Astrid called. "Stay in sight of each other, but as far apart as you can go without losing anyone. You see the boats, send up a flare!"

It was a dangerous way to fly. They all had different speeds and agility. Flying into a storm like this, with all of them so spread out... It was going to be dangerous.

Astrid lashed her legs tightly to the harness. She remembered the way Hiccup had stepped off Toothless' back and gone falling. There would be nobody to catch him this time. Or the twins. Or her.

 _Dragonriders don't fear the sky._ She told herself and crouched lower in her seat, leaning into the wind as Stormfly flapped harder.

* * *

They flew straight into the storm. The ice and snow was pelting into her face, and into Stormfly. Astrid could see the ice building up and caking the front of her wings.

She could barely see Toothless on her left, and Meatlug on her right. The clouds were getting darker, and the wind getting stronger. Down below, the ice was growing thick in clumps, and was being tossed back and forth on the waves.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see movement, and she saw a Night Fury sweeping on a wind, coming closer. She didn't know how he did it, but Hiccup was able to turn into the wind as he came closer, sweeping alongside her. "You seeing this?" He called across to her. "In this ice, we'll never get them back!"

"I'm kind of hoping ice is the problem!" Astrid called back. "If they actually sank, we'll never _find_ them!"

"Alright, lets assume they had a chance to try and save themselves. Lifeboats wouldn't do much on these waves in a storm... So the captains would have wanted to take cover." Hiccup looked around. "There is an island or two a few miles away." He called to her. "I'm going to send the twins to check it out while we widen the search."

* * *

The search continued another hour. The storm was closing in on them. The riders knew it better than anyone, in the sky with the wind and stormclouds.

Astrid called over as Stormfly jerked in the twisting wind beneath her. "Hiccup, we've gotta find something soon or-"

Toothless roared at that moment, and they both turned to look. From their left, fireballs were blasting into the darkening sky.

"That's the island!" Hiccup called. "The Twins must have found something!"

Stormfly was already wheeling around. "Let's go!"

* * *

They found the missing ships in the cove of a small island. They could see the crews, not on the boats, but doing their best to fortify their position on land. The crewmen had their backs to the sharpest slope they could find, trying to hide from the wind. Even from a long way away, Astrid knew they didn't have much chance.

It took a lot of effort from Toothless to get past the updraft and actually land. Once down, he had to flatten his wings across the sand to keep himself from behind blown away again. Stormfly came down and did the same thing. Astrid signaled the rest of the riders not to try for it, staying in the open sky where they were safer.

Two of the Ship Captains came over, hunched low against the wind. "Sir!"

Hiccup actually took a second to realize that a ship captain three times his size was actually calling him 'sir'. "Yeah, um... That's me. So, we were sent to find you."

"I'm a little surprised they sent you all out in weather like this." He saluted. "Captain Bokka of the __Fishbone Folly__."

The other matched the pose. "Captain Hefferson of the __Nadder's Bane__ _._ "

"We don't leave anyone behind." Astrid assured him. "But it took a good bit longer to find you than we thought. The stormfront got a lot closer."

"Actually, this is the second stormfront." Captain Bokka told them. "The first hit this morning. We knew it wouldn't reach Berk, so we decided to wait it out instead of coming back, but when we tried to come out of the cove, our anchors wouldn't come up."

"Frozen winches?" Astrid guessed.

"Right. Pretty much the only metal parts on the ship. They're usually docked when the weather turns this cold, and now you know why." Bokka explained. "The metal contracted, we couldn't get the anchors up, and the tide shifted back out before we could get the winches pried apart. With nine ships all trying to shelter in the same cove without an anchorpoint... We're stuck on the reefs."

The two Dragonriders traded a look. "With your anchor winches unspooled, your ships will be smashed apart by the waves."

"We know. That's why we decided to wait it out on shore." Bokka nodded. "But we can't lift off those reefs until the tide comes back in."

"The storm will reach you in half an hour!" Astrid argued.

"I know that!" Bokka barked. "Can you get us back to Berk?"

"All your crews in half an hour? No." Hiccup's voice was distant. He was doing math in his head.

"What about our catch?" Hefferson demanded. "We made a good catch of it! Enough to keep us fed for almost a full week!"

Astrid and Hiccup traded a look and slipped to the side to talk privately. "We can't afford to go without those fish."

"I know." Hiccup nodded. "But we can't wait for the tide. Either the boats have to go... or the reefs do."

Astrid chewed her lip. "We've never done strafing runs that precise. The whole reason we've having a problem is that dragonfire is too powerful."

"We've never done it, but the Dragons have." Hiccup told her. "Before we made peace, the dragons blew apart chains and nets. We've got a net made of rocks and coral; let's take advantage." He turned back to the two sailors. "Captains. Board your boats, and get ready to move fast."

* * *

"Alright, folks!" Hiccup ordered, shouting over the wind. "Fire at Will!"

"Who's Will?" Tuffnut asked.

"He's the guy with the red hair." His twin told him. "The one that pantsed Hiccup when we were all Apprentices."

Tuffnut beamed. "Awesome! Hiccup's finally getting revenge! I knew it'd happen eventually!"

Ruffnut froze. "Wait. Didn't we dare Will to do that?"

Tuffnut froze too. "Don't tell him?"

* * *

Hookfang had the chain from the anchor strung through the loop on the belly of his harness, just like the fishnets. Barf and Belch had the other end of the chain looped too.

"NOW!" Astrid roared. Stormfly roared with her, psyched up for action.

The two largest dragons started flapping their wings as hard as they could, flying straight up. Not nearly enough to lift a ship trapped on reefs and stone, but enough to lighten the load in shallow water. Stormfly, Toothless and Meatlug swooped low, close to the water. The riders kept their hands up and let the dragons work on their own, firing blasts of dragonfire at rock and coral. The clawing reefs were shattered. The winds blew hard, thankfully in the right direction, and as the smaller dragons took positions on the railings, gripping with their talons, the combined effort of all the Dragons of Berk hauled the ship away from the cove.

Stormfly took position at the prow of the ship... Astrid looked back at Hiccup, until he signaled. Astrid kicked her heels in, and Stormfly heaved the prow of the ship sideways, turning the ship away from the others that had her jammed in place.

There was a horrible scraping, a few tense moments...

And then with a surge, the __Nadder's Bane__ was sailing again.

The crew sent up a loud cheer as the Captain roared for them to set a course for home.

"Okay." Astrid let out a breath, exhausted already. "Eight more ships to go."

* * *

The storm was all over them by the time the ships were free. The last one was listing, taking on water as the waves hammered its hull.

The Dragons stayed close to the last ship. Her crew was peeking up at them like Protective Valkyries. In the sky, Astrid was not so reassured. "You think they'll make it back to Berk?"

"I don't know. The wind is working with us for once, but it's going to be close." Hiccup called back. In the cloud, it was getting harder to see him. "Listen, someone has to warn them what's coming. We've got a listing ship taking on water, and they'll need to be ready at home!"

Astrid agreed. "You go. Toothless is faster than all the rest of us put together."

Toothless tucked his legs, Hiccup lay flat against his spine... and it was like a ghost image suddenly appeared against the cloud, fading away. He was gone so fast that she had barely seen him speed up. She saw the clouds twist in his wake, before being blown back into chaos by the wind.

* * *

The sky was growing darker by the time they made it back to Berk. Hiccup had apparently arrived, because the Dockhands were all assembled to help with the listing ship.

Astrid didn't see Hiccup, but Stoick was waving two flags over his head. Astrid recognized the signals, and pointed Stormfly down next to him. "Chief!" She called triumphantly. "The Dragonriders of Berk are pleased to deliver to you the catch of the day!"

Stoick was beaming. "You did it! Any casualties?"

"No, though it was touch and go with that last one for a while." Astrid reported. "That's why we sent Hiccup ahead."

Stoick looked around. "Where is he, by the way?"

Astrid froze. "He... He must have." She waved at the Dockhands. "You were ready with the Shipyard frame! He must have told you what was coming!"

Stoick's face changed instantly. "He came to tell us to prepare, and then he and Toothless flew right back out again!" He growled. "He said he was going back for the rest of you-"

Astrid was already running. She was halfway down the Dock before the rest of the Dragonriders had landed and made their way to the hot drinks.

As the _Fishbone Folly_ came in to dock, Astrid took the railing at a leap before the gangplank was even put out, and forced her way past the exhausted crew to the Captain's Cabin. The Captain was out on deck, seeing to his crew, and Astrid grabbed for his maps. She knew exactly where he had gone.

There were only two mechanical compasses in town, and Astrid knew how to use neither of them. She couldn't see the sun to navigate... and she'd be flying into the storm.

There was the sound of heavy footsteps stomping outside the Cabin, and the rest of the Riders burst in. "The Chief said Hiccup didn't make it back!" Fishlegs was openly scared.

"He did make it back, but he went right back out again." Astrid didn't even look up.

"He didn't find us!" Snotlout said. "Unless Toothless can go invisible. Can Night Fury really do that? I thought that was just a story, like Witchbreed and Grandma..."

"I know exactly where he went." Astrid didn't even look up from the map. "And before you say another word, you're not coming with me."

"Yes, we are." The Twins snapped.

"No." Astrid barked. "You are not. None of you are. By morning the storm will break and Berk will be under a layer of ice, including the docks. Our ships, the ones we just rescued, will be snowed in. We've just proven that Dragons can direct ships and blast apart ice and obstruction." She spun to glare at them. "This is how we do our part for Berk: We blast apart the ice that keeps our ships from going out, and we blast it again when they turn around to come back. If we all freeze to death out there first, then it was all for nothing." She gave them all a stare. "And guys, if Hiccup was here right now, he'd say the same thing."

Silence.

"Right, so I'm going." Snotlout said, as though she hadn't spoken.

Astrid hauled off and punched him square in the chest, hard enough that he felt his heart stop. After a good thirty seconds, he fought his way back to his feet. "I mean, it should be me." He coughed. "You're in charge with Hiccup gone. It should be me."

Astrid stared at him a moment. He was actually being sincere. "Thank you for that, but... It has to be me."

"Why?" Snotlout asked, somewhat dopier than usual.

"Because it does." Astrid nearly yelled at them, and forced her way past them up to the deck.

Snotlout was clutching his chest, right over the heart, exactly where she'd punched him. "Now I know I have a heart. It's broken."

Ruffnutt turned to her twin. "Pay up."

"We don't know why she's going. Maybe he owes her money." Tuffnut whined.

"Ten coin." Ruffnutt insisted. "They're in love."

"WAAAAH!" Snotlout burst into tears. "They are! I knew it the second she tried to stave his head in with the axe! That beautiful, _beautiful_ axe!"

Fishlegs tried to console him. "Dude, she's hit _you_ with that axe, too."

"I know." Snotlout blubbered. "I thought we had something!"

The others hauled him to his feet and led the way back to the dock. Stormfly was already a rapidly vanishing spot in the darkening sky.

* * *

"I'm going to _strangle_ that girl." Stoick growled, twisting the handle of his mace between his hands. "I'm going to chain Hiccup to his bed and give Astrid the job of mucking out the livestock for the rest of her life, I'm going to-"

He had been going on for quite some time. Gobber knew how long to tune him out before trying to talk him down.

"...and then I'll start in on Toothless! I'm going to paint him six different colors in his sleep! I'm going to put him on a chain a hundred feet long and never let him leave again! I'm going to-"

Gobber waited patiently. It wasn't even close to time yet.

* * *

She had done her best to fly in a straight line, but once she was out of sight of Berk, she had no idea where she was.

Stormfly had a decent idea of where the wind was moving her, and turned back and forth, keeping to the same direction. But if the wind had them off course, even a little bit, they could miss the island completely and not notice.

"How are you doing, Stormy?" Astrid grit through chattering teeth. "Dragons are pretty temperature proof, but how are you doing?"

Stormfly didn't answer, or at least it wasn't audible over the wind. Astrid could see her wings flapping faster, the range of her wingspan was getting tighter as the cold beat against them...

Astrid chewed her lip. _What would Hiccup do?_

Once she thought of it, she wondered why she didn't think of it sooner. She pulled back on the harness and Stromfly flew straight up. There was a shock of cold wetness as they passed through the cloud layer. The wetness soaked into her clothes, into her hair, into her boots...

When they broke through the clouds, Astrid gasped. She could suddenly see forever.

The night sky above was shockingly clear and cold, and she searched the stars for a direction. She got one without too much trouble, and suddenly realized how numb she was getting. Her skin hurt, but she couldn't feel her limbs any more.

Stormfly's wings were moving much slower, and she knew the dragon was in the same trouble. "Heat us up!"

Stormfly fired a blast of dragonfire ahead. A cloud of thick steam rose from the flames, where hot fire met subzero air. But it served to sear away some of the cold, and she was glad for it. Stormfly did it again. And then again. "Save your fire!" She told Stormfly. "We don't know what Hiccup might be in the middle of when we find him!" She checked the stars again, and turned them slightly to the west. "Okay. B-b-best speed." Her teeth were chattering. She'd soaked through her clothes in the cloud.

* * *

"I was going to bring her a whole helmet full of posies!" Snotlout wept.

Ruffnutt rolled her eyes. He'd been going on and on for quite a while.

"I was going to buy her a whole herd of bulls!" Snotlout wailed. "It would have been a spring wedding... Our kids would have been so beautiful!"

"Kids?" Tuffnut breathed. "You and Astrid? Whoa. That's... Sly Loki, that's terrifying!"

"No, really! I would have been a great dad!"

"Dad? You're barely housebroken!" Ruffnutt told him.

"What do you mean 'barely'?" Snotlout roared. "WAAAH!"

"Leave him alone." Fishlegs told the twins firmly, putting an arm around the young viking. "Big guy, big muscles. Strongest muscle we have is our great big hearts. They never stop working."

Snotlout burst into tears again, burying his face in his hands.

Chief Stoick came over with a tray of hot drinks for them. "Here. It'll keep the chill out." He noticed Snotlout. "What's with him?"

"He's just found out that Astrid has a thing for Hiccup."

Stoick beamed. "I know." His face fell. "Oh, wait... Snotlout, you did'na make a move on Astrid, did ye?"

"Of course not." Snotlout sniffed. "A lady that fine you gotta romance first. That was why I was going to get her a herd."

"A herd? Of livestock?"

"Well, I was going to give her the skull of the first dragon I ever slew, but then Hiccup came along and gave her a live one!" He bawled. "How do I compete with that?"

"I admit, it's a hard act to follow." Stoick agreed. "But to be fair, he gave you one too."

"Fair? There is no _fair_ in a world where Hiccup can get Astrid!" Snotlout wailed, face down on the table, hammering it with his fist. "What do I do now?"

"I tell you what you do." Stoick told him, reaching out and hoisting him upright by the collar. "You toast your worthy champions! Then you ride your fire breathing dragon! Then you bathe in the blood of your enemies, and rejoice in the songs that the poets sing in your honor, AND MAKE THE LORDS OF VALHALLA RUN IN FEAR!" He yelled powerfully. "That's how a **Viking** does it!"

Beat.

"HOW A **VIKING** DOES IT!" Snotlout banged his forehead hard on the table a few more times to energize himself, before he lurched to his feet with a battle cry and ran for the door with a terrible fury, waving his arms in the air...

...leaving the other Dragonriders with Chief Stoick.

"Where does he think he's going to go?" Fishlegs asked.

"Don't know." Stoick said, unconcerned. "But either he runs into the snow and freezes, or he slips on the ice and doesn't make it past the stairs. Either way, he's not getting between me and grandchildren."

* * *

"Hiccup..." Astrid croaked, barely able to hear her own voice. "Where are you?"

She could only stay above the clouds for so long. The air was thin and colder, and she couldn't be certain when she'd pass over the island. She took her best guess and they dove back into the blizzard.

She had guessed wrong, but she could feel her clothes freezing solid around her from the water in them. She couldn't risk going back up again.

Stormfly was the same way, trying to keep going against the wind, and not entirely sure which direction she was meant to go.

 _Dragons steer by body movement._ Hiccup had told her. _If they turn their heads too often, they create drag, and wear themselves out._

 _And I'm already going straight into the blizzard._ Astrid sighed. "Okay, we have to do this the hard way!" She called to Stormfly. "Keep your eyes closed, alright?"

Stormfly did so, struggling against the wind. Astrid gripped the harness tightly, and dug her knees in to hold on. "Let me fly." She told her dragon. "You keep me in the air, I keep you from flying into things, okay?"

Stormfly, eyes shut against the snow, obeyed, letting her rider pick the direction.

 _Think like a dragon!_ Astrid commanded herself. _When you walk against the wind, you have to lean into it. When you fly against the wind, you have to turn into it, dive into it, swoop with it..._

They were suddenly perfect partners. She was the eyes, and Stormfly the wings. She gave direction, and her dragon gave distance...

But it was all such a losing game, because the ice got thicker on Stormfly's wings, and the clouds grew denser before Astrid's eyes, and neither of them had any idea where they were going.

And then suddenly, the sky lit up with a blast of fire and lightning.

Astrid sqwaked as Stormfly lurched. For a split second, the air wasn't made of ice. Stormfly suddenly soared a few dozen feet, before the wind drove her back down.

But Astrid was smiling. There was only one thing she knew that made that kind of blast in the air.

* * *

She found him on the northern side of the island as expected. The nest was right where they'd left it. She could see the steam rising from the sand... And two dead Zippleback floating belly up in the oceans.

Stormfly roared, pointing her snowcapped head to where Toothless was between the edge of the beach and the sharp rise of the hillside. She could see the spot, thirty feet above the beach, where she and Hiccup met up at night.

There had been a landslide. One of the trees had come down in the storm and taken a big load of rocks and dirt with it. Toothless was at the bottom of the landslip, half buried in snow, with his wings covering over something. A line in fire had been drawn around him, sending up a beacon.

Stormfly swooped down next to him, and Astrid jumped off before the Nadder had stopped moving. Hiccup was half buried under the branches of the felled tree. His face was bloody, and the blood had already iced over.

Toothless was hovering over him protectively, covered in ice and snow too. The tailfin Hiccup had made was pulverized. The Night Fury wasn't going anywhere, with or without a rider.

Feeling their chances get worse, she threw herself down next to Hiccup. "Hiccup? Gimmie a sign! Gimmie good news! Come on, babe! Work with me!"

"They drowned." Hiccup groaned after an eternity. "The cold isn't a threat to them, but... The eggs were in trouble when the tide came in. The storm put their eggs in danger, and they drowned trying to get the eggs somewhere safe."

Astrid wanted to kill him. She also wanted to kiss him passionately. She wanted to wrap her arms tight around him and never let him go. She wanted to strangle him for being so reckless.

Instead, she worked quickly, rubbing his arms and chest, trying to warm him.

The fog and snow was getting thicker and heavier with each passing minute. "We're not going to make it back to Berk, are we?" She shouted to Hiccup, almost laying across him to try and keep the wind away.

"You can try..."

"You can't." She reminded him. "Not without repairing that tailfin. We're stuck here."

"Astrid, just go! Get home safe! The others are going to need you." He slurred.

"Not happening."

"For the... good of th... the vill-a-a-a..." Hiccup had already passed out again. His lips were blue.

Astrid pulled Stormfly's wing over him, creating a lean-to. "Can you hold it there?"

Stormfly growled in agreement, though it was clear the wind was trying to blow her wings back. Astrid went a few feet away to the nearest corner of the beach and started collecting sand, as much of it as she could carry. She packed it around Hiccup, only a few feet high, but enough to shield him from the wind. Then she went to the snowbank and did the same. Another layer to the barrier.

Toothless quickly realized that she was trying to build a snow cave for Hiccup to hide in, and went to the snowbank, pushing huge amounts of snow with his entire body, plowing it over to her. Stormfly dug with her talons, pushing more snow and sand into piles for her.

Astrid started working, and build a small shelter out of snow and sand and ice. The wind built up more snow over the top. Astrid pulled the waterskin out from under her leathers. Close to her body, it hadn't frozen. She poured the whole thing out over the walls of her shelter. The water would freeze solid soon. She tried to pack the ice higher, so that it wouldn't collapse.

"No room for you guys, I'm afraid." She told the dragons, teeth chattering. "But we're going to have to wait it out. Try and find somewhere. Anywhere that's not in the wind."

Toothless met her gaze head on, and immediately flopped to the ground. Stormfly did the same beside him, both of them blocking the wind for her and Hiccup.

"I'm not kidding, you two!" Astrid nearly roared at them. "You may have fire in your bellies, but you haven't had a solid meal in days, and if he was awake, Hiccup wouldn't have it either! You're going to freeze out here. Go and be safe!"

The dragons were immovable. They both stretched their wings out protectively, laying them against the snow barrier she had built. Astrid could feel her face freezing solid, and surrendered, climbing into the snow-cave with Hiccup.

Toothless shoved more snow against her back, and the two dragons laid their wings safely over the gap at the top.

Astrid felt Hiccup's blood start to drip as the space between their faces started to warm from their breath. The cold had frozen his blood to stop the bleeding. Astrid took a few fingers of snow, gently brought them up to his face, and started washing his wounds. It looked worse than it was, which meant he'd been knocked cold right away. She felt around and caught the ointment she used to tend to Stormfly's cuts and scrapes, and got to work on his wounds.

"...'eels nice..." He slurred a little as her fingers brushed his skin.

Even under present circumstances, her stomach did a flip. She had seen several viking women do this for their husbands and their lords, tending their injuries intimately and bathing them in the healing mineral springs. Gothi was the medicine woman, but it was the long held custom that a woman tending to the man she loved did more to heal body and spirit than any ordinary healer. Hiccup seemed borderline unconscious, certainly he was seeing six of everything. _Can you even feel my fingers, Hiccup?_ She asked silently. _Do I make it better? Does your battered body need my hands more than someone who knows what they're doing? Because tonight there's nobody else..._

She thought of the day she'd rested her fingertips over his heart. She could feel the strength growing in him then, and she tried desperately to do it again. _Feel me, Babe. I'm right here, thinking warm and hopeful thoughts. I send them all to you, my love. Please, tell me you can hear them..._

With his injuries cleaned, he was still icy cold, and she slid her hands up under his shirt. Any other time it would be awkward; but she was trying to warm them both. As the snow built up heavier on the walls she had built, it got darker in their little snow cave, but at least it was warm.

Astrid blinked. It was warm. Warmer than it should have been after only a few moments out of the elements. Warmer than it should be, even with a dragon close by...

Pressed in tightly, she couldn't pull away to look without risking the walls of the snowcave, but she felt her way down Hiccup's side with one hand, until she found his shoulder bag. Whatever he had been carrying... she pulled back her fingers instantly with a hiss. Whatever was in his bag, it was _hot_. Scalding hot. Painfully hot.

She realized an instant before she pulled the bag up to eye level and opened it carefully. "Eggs!" She breathed. Hiccup had rescued two dragon eggs before the landslip had caught him.

"Of course!" She hissed at herself. "The steam rising off the beach! How did I not think of it?! Valhalla _wept_ , I must be so blind!"

Careful not to knock down the walls, she maneuvered the eggs between her and Hiccup, stirring some of the icy sand gently to keep from being scalded. Her front half was overheated, and her back felt like a block of ice, but Astrid almost didn't care, eyes glued to Hiccup's face. His lips were losing the blueish tint, and she tried to think good thoughts. "Don't freeze, babe." She whispered. "You did it again. We just have to hold out long enough to tell them all about it. So, just hold on!"

Hiccup moaned a little, as if to answer her. She wrapped her arms around his back, hugging him around the heat source with her, not unlike what the dragons did to keep them warm.

"Just hold on." Astrid repeated, lips brushing against his face as she spoke the words over and over like a prayer. "Just hold on. Hold on. Hold on."

She kept mumbling as she started to drift off to sleep, the winds howling savagely around them.

* * *

She woke up to Hiccup sucking on her fingers. Still half asleep, she saw it happening, but her brain couldn't process the image for a moment. She couldn't even feel her fingers. "Um..."

Hiccup looked up at her and found she was awake, suddenly freezing like he'd seen his own death, and he pulled back. "Suction." He croaked. "Your fingers are black."

Astrid looked, and found that the fingers on her other hand had done the same. They had turned dark blue to the point of blackness, and she couldn't move them. She immediately stuck the fingers of her other hand in her mouth. She needed heat and suction to return circulation before her fingers frostbit and fell off. "Good morning, by the way." She mumbled.

Hiccup pulled her hand to the egg, which was still unusually hot, though the sand kept it from being too painful. Astrid hissed as blood flow returned to her hands, pins and needles so intense that they hurt. "How did you find me?" He asked.

"I knew you were stupid enough to check on the nest, and after that, Toothless sent up a flare." Astrid told him.

He looked at her. "You wanna hit me, don't you?"

"I'll save it up for when we get outta here." Astrid promised.

"Where's Toothless?"

Astrid twisted to look up and saw daylight. "He and Stormfly stayed to cover us over with their wings... But I must have fallen asleep when..."

Hiccup started to move, groaned in pain, and tried again. She held him still. "Let me." She told him softly. "The wind is quiet. The storm has passed..." She got her hands under her and pushed off, collapsing the snow walls. The shock of open air hit her like a thousand needles, and she let out a gasp in the biting cold. "Gods, that's cold."

Toothless fought to stand up, and nearly fell over. "Why does my leg..." He looked down at the damaged peg leg mechanism. "Oh."

"At least it wasn't the good one." She grunted, putting his arm over her shoulders. "Let's find our-"

They both stopped dead at the sound of big heavy footsteps clomping up behind them. They both tried to turn, only partially successful, when two great big hands came from behind and plucked them both off the ground. An instant later, they were both slung over a broad shoulder each and were moving very quickly.

"Hi, dad!" Hiccup croaked.

"Not one word!" Stoick snarled.

"Dad, we can't leave yet-"

"Stop talking."

"-we have to-"

"Don't want to hear it."

"-go back to the beach and-"

"Taking you back to Berk right now!"

"-save those eggs! They could-"

"You could have killed Astrid!"

Neither of them were listening to the other. Astrid had seen it before, more than once. Father and Son were more alike than either of them would believe. "Chief, you have to listen to him! We could-"

"FOUND THEM!" Stoick bellowed. Answering shouts came from different directions and Astrid suddenly realized that they had a whole search party out for them. As they came toward the shoreline, she saw boats. All the boats left in Berk. The dragons were flying too, circling above.

"We're going the wrong way!" Astrid realized.

Hiccup realized too. "Other side! We need to go to the other side of the island!"

"HEALERS!" Stoick bellowed, as they reached the nearest boat. He marched up the gangplank, as some of the crew started applauding. If they were applauding the successful rescue, or the two survivors, she couldn't tell. There were healers with blankets and wraps and salves.

As much as Astrid wanted to collapse, she had far more important things in mind. "Where's Stormfly?"

Stormfly's familiar trill answered her, and she saw them. Both dragons, with ice-burns on their hides, were stretched out on the deck. The Healers were tending to their hurts, and bringing torches and flames over to warm them. Astrid kicked and punched her way off The Chiefs shoulder with a strength she didn't really have, and ran over to Stormfly. She made it three feet before her legs gave out and she collapsed across her Dragon's beak, holding on tightly. "You're safe!"

Stormfly trilled, equally glad to see her rider.

Gobber came over, a big smile on his face. "You made it! I knew you'd make it! Wasn't worried for a second!"

"When I woke up and they were gone, I feared the worst." Astrid told Gobber, glancing over at Hiccup, who was having his own reunion with Toothless. She could see the way Hiccup's body twisted, and his face was already bathed in sweat. He was hurting a lot more than he was admitting to.

"We knew the direction that you were going." Gobber explained. "You used one of the Maps before you took off after Hiccup."

"It would have taken you all night to get here by boat." Astrid pointed out.

"It did." Gobber sighed. "We should have waited for morning, but The Chief wouldn't wait. He flat out ordered us to take the boats out in the middle of the storm." He looked sick. "Three of our crew were washed overboard. We drove all night, and when we got here, we found the trees on fire."

Astrid looked back at the island, and found he was right. The trees that they had seen at the top of the island, the ones they had sat under while watching the wild ones... They were all burning. "Smoke was rising all over the island. Astrid turned back to Stormfly. "That was you, wasn't it, Stormy?"

The Nadder blinked her big, tired eyes and nuzzled her side a bit.

"The fire shone bright enough for us to see the island from a mile away. Your dragons saved you again." Gobber said with affection.

"CAST OFF!" Stoick roared. Almost immediately, the boat started moving.

Astrid fought her way to her feet. "The dragons weren't saving us." She staggered her way over toward the Chief. "Chief Stoick! We have to stay here!"

"Astrid, I don't want to hear it." Stoick told her.

Hiccup was up and hobbling on his damaged leg. "Dad, we could solve the whole problem if-"

"Hiccup, this rescue has already cost us three people, and there's another stormfront moving in. We leave in the next half hour, or we risk more lives. I'm not doing that."

Astrid grabbed the nearest axe she could find, and held it ready to swing. "Chief, you stop and listen to us, or I will personally take Stormfly and blow the rudder off this boat."

And everything stopped.

Stoick grew noticeably taller. "Miss Astrid, does it strike you as a good idea to threaten me with an axe?"

Astrid was still shaking from a night in the cold. She could barely hold the axe, let alone swing it. "Not even a little bit, but I have your attention at least."

Silence.

"Hiccup, tell your second in command to put her weapon down." Stoick said evenly.

Everyone on the boat was staring. Was Hiccup going to defy the Chief? Would Astrid defy Hiccup?

Hiccup looked like he was going to faint. "Astrid, we both know you're not going to use the axe." He said softly.

Feeling her legs cut out from under her, Astrid put down the axe.

"And we both know that Toothless would have better aim when it came to taking out the rudder on the boat." Hiccup said bravely. "So if it comes to that, _I'll_ do it."

Stoick turned his full attention to his son. His expression was completely stunned. And for better or worse, the whole ship was looking at Hiccup, waiting to see what came next.

"Dad." Hiccup spoke finally. "You said that what the village needed was a little more of 'this'. You charged me with finding a way that dragons could help our village. I've found one. A way for every man woman and child to make it through winter."

At that, every eye swiveled to Chief Stoick.

"In private." Stoick said finally. He stalked to the cabin door, and his son followed. Astrid took a step to follow automatically, when she suddenly caught herself. She wasn't in charge of the Dragonriders, nor was she Chief, or captain of the boat. She had no say in any of it.

It was strange. For the first time, she was on the outside. She knew about Toothless faster than anyone else in town. She knew about the island long before the boats had come. She knew about the Nest, and the eggs, and the lotions and... now she was _outside_ the room, hoping that The Chief would say yes.

 _I've changed._ Astrid thought to herself. _How about that?_

She turned away from the cabin and found all the Dragonriders were perched on the edge of the ship, looking at her with their jaws hanging open.

"What?" She demanded, as though threatening Chief Stoick with an axe was something that happened every day. She glanced back at the door. Still nothing. She went back over to the Riders. "Guys, do me a favor. Take your dragons around the west side of this island. Just a slow, easy flight. Let your dragons see what's there."

"What's over there?" Tuffnut asked.

"Find out when you get there."

* * *

The door opened after five minutes. Long enough for the Dragons to be far away. Hiccup came out first, noticed the rest of their squadron was gone, and looked the question to Astrid. She sent a look over to the island, and he nodded exactly once.

"Astrid. A moment." Stoick's voice spoke of absolute doom.

Astrid swallowed hard and followed him into the cabin.

* * *

"When Hiccup was unconscious after the Battle of the Red Death, I asked you how to finish what he started." Stoick commented calmly.

"I know it was a mistake, but... This is how you do it."

"Hiccup, at his most insubordinate, never once pulled an axe on me." Stoick growled. "A Night Fury, once. But not an axe." He gave her a deathglare. "So. Choose your next words carefully, my dear."

"I never would have used it, Chief." Astrid was shaking a little.

"I know that, and you know that, and Hiccup knows that. But does the next person with an axe know that?" Stoick growled.

She didn't have an answer to that.

Stoick sighed. "I always liked you, Astrid. Part of me wondered if perhaps your interest in my son came more from the fact that his star was rising." He looked cannily at her. "I wasn't there, but did you think Gobber didn't notice the entire class leaving your table to go sit with him when he started doing well in the arena?"

"Like you did?" Astrid dared.

Cold silence.

"That was... True, I suppose." Stoick observed. "Accurate, but stupid. We'll call it bravery." The Chief removed his helmet. "Did Hiccup ever tell you what happened to his mother?"

Astrid shook her head. "He doesn't talk about her much, but I know that she died in a Dragon attack."

Stoick looked ill, just thinking about it. "Valka wanted to make peace with the Dragons. Hiccup has so much of his mother in him... I was afraid, Astrid." He pointed sharply at her. "You never repeat that to anyone. Especially him."

Astrid nodded obediently.

"She wanted to make Dragons part of our world, said there was more to them than we knew, because we never looked. When she died, I took it as final proof. Proof that Dragons could never be anything more than predators or trophies. When Hiccup started to take so much after his mother, I dreaded the day..." He shook his head remorsefully. "It's a terrible thing to think about my son, but I dreaded the day that he would become Chief, because if he did what his mother would have done, The Dragons would have shredded Berk to bits in a week."

"And then, for one shining moment, it looks like that was exactly what the village needed." Astrid said softly. "And then Winter comes, and you find the real problem hasn't changed. Is Hiccup too loyal to the Dragons, and not loyal enough to the village?"

"I spent so many years thinking one way, it never even occurred to me that Valka was right." Stoick admitted. "But if Hiccup is right about the eggs..."

"He is." Astrid put in.

"Then I think Valka just had all her dreams come true." Stoick looked at his helmet, sitting on the table. "And, Odin forgive me, I fought tooth and claw against it." He shook his head. "I wonder if I shouldn't just retire now. Hiccup's got the Sight. He's the one we need looking at the future of Berk."

"The people of Berk would follow you anywhere." She reminded him.

"I know. And that's very nearly taken our village off the map twice now. There's a reason the Gods don't let us live forever, Miss Astrid. Young Blood and New Ideas is the best thing that can happen to our village right now."

"Hiccup is nowhere near ready for that." She told him.

"When I was his age, I would have said the same thing. Then I met Valka, and I could do anything. By himself, I agree; he's not ready. But... Maybe if he had a Second. Someone he trusted. Someone who loved him; someone who was fiercely loyal to him..."

He was looking at her with a real earnest look, and Astrid fought with all her strength to avoid falling down. "Hiccup would say... how proud he is of his father. He would say that you turned the whole village on his head. If you think you're too stuck in the past, then I would remind you to take a look around our village now. You keep going on about how Hiccup changed everything, but the fact is he's still a kid in a lot of ways. The one that changed things is the man who gave the order that things be changed. That wasn't Hiccup. It was you."

Stoick snorted. "I suppose so. But the thing is, when my son and I are in disagreement, he suddenly found the will to defy me, go charging off on insanely stupid missions, and... He's usually right. At least, he has been twice now, when the stakes were high." He looked at her. "And you are usually right there with him when he does it."

"Not last night." She said quietly, not liking it. "Last night he went without me. It took me hours to find him. He's not doing it to impress me."

"I think that everything Hiccup has ever done in his entire life has been to impress you, impress me, or for Toothless." Stoick observed. "If he can do it a dragon, then he can do it for the village. That's all he really needs."

Astrid felt another wave of unworthiness flit through her. She'd never done anything she didn't want to.

"What I don't understand is this: When you went charging out into the storm after him? Did you do it to save the village, or to save the Dragons?" Stoick demanded.

"I did it... to save Hiccup." Astrid confessed softly.

Stoick just looked at her.

"I needed him to be safe." Astrid said softly. "Even if that meant I couldn't be." She squared her jaw. "He had no business going back out there without me."

"That, Miss Astrid... Is the right answer." The Chief said calmly. "So. What are your intentions now?"

Astrid didn't answer. She knew that a lot of Vikings would have been married by her age. She had never planned that as part of her future. She didn't feel it was right, given that she wanted to be a Dragonslayer. But now that wasn't going to happen, clearly. "To be honest, I hadn't thought about it. For a while, I wondered if I only noticed him because of Toothless." She said weakly. "I don't wonder that any more. Last night proved it."

"Yes, if you were more... ambitious than I thought, you could easily have stayed in Berk and set yourself up as his natural successor. Instead, you did this."

"Chief, if you're asking me whether or not I did it for love... Well, maybe. I've never been in love before. If you're asking me if I plan to marry your son one day... Then my answer is that I have no intention of doing otherwise in the near future." Astrid said, and found that she meant it wholeheartedly. "But that's not a good idea."

"Explain."

"Hiccup told me once that he had a chance, early on, to kill Toothless, but he couldn't make himself do it, because when he looked at a cast out, damaged, lonely Night Fury... He saw someone too much like himself." Astrid spread her hands wide. "He's getting his feet under him. I've known what I wanted since I was a little girl. You've known what you wanted for longer than than I've been alive. Hiccup's just figuring it out. And now that I'm not going to be a Dragonslayer, I guess I am too."

"Now that the war is over, so's the whole village, in a way." Stoick said, suddenly ancient again.

Astrid nodded. "When we've got it sorted, and the village is safe, and the Dragons are safe and we know what we want... That's when we'll know if we want each other." Astrid said, feeling very grown up.

"Of course, Snotlout might sweep you off your feet by then." Stoick observed.

Astrid nearly swallowed her tongue. "Oh, guh."

Stoick chuckled. "You ever draw a weapon on me again, girl; I'm going to assume you're challenging me for leadership; and I will respond... like a Viking Chieftain should."

Astrid straightened her shoulders. "Yessir."

At that moment, the cabin door opened, and Gobber came rushing in with a big smile...

...carrying a wedding dress.

Astrid spun on Stoick. "Really?"

Stoick smirked. "Put it away, Gob. I was not sufficiently intimidating. Put it back with Valka's things."

Gobber was crushed. "But I spent all night altering it! You know how hard it is for me to sew?"

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Permission to get out?"

Stoick nodded, and Astrid ran for it, leaving the two old friends alone together. "What's the situation out there?"

"Hiccup's false leg took some damage, but he's repairing it. Same for Toothless' tail-fin. The Healers say that Hiccup needs rest, but they don';t think he'll take it. The dragons all went around to the northern side of the Island." Gobber reported. "Some of them without their riders."

"What are they doing?"

"Digging." Gobber told him. "And the stormfronts are closing again. Are we getting out of here?"

Stoick sighed. "No. Can't leave without the Dragons anyway. Empty the hold. Get every box, every satchel, every bag, every pot, and have them filled with sand."

"Sand?"

"Gobber, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Stoick sighed. "Bring the boats about to the northern beach. We're taking on cargo. Or passengers, depending on how you look at it."

* * *

"I want out." Hiccup threw back the covers on his bed. "I'm well enough. It's been a week."

Astrid, sitting beside his bed in a chair, didn't even look up from her needlepoint. She planted a foot against his chest without looking and pushed him back into bed. "Let's play a game called 'who will I agree with?'" She said brightly. "You say you're ready. Gothi and the healers all say no. Who will I agree with?"

"Come on, Astrid. Where is my leg? Gimmie back my leg."

"It's in a safe place." She told him. "Enjoy it, babe. When you're cleared for duty, we won't get ten minutes to ourselves."

"Oh, so the truth is you're enjoying this, aren't you? Keeping me in bed all day?" Hiccup gave her a look.

Astrid didn't respond, but a warm flush climbed her cheeks. "As a matter of fact, yes. It's still too cold out for comfort."

Hiccup lifted his blanket. "It's warm in here."

Astrid smiled a little, but hid it. She came over and climbed in next to him, bringing her needlepoint with her. "Promise to stay put?"

"Why would I leave now? Any direction I go is away from you." He pecked her cheek and reached for his notebooks. He was looking over his new designs for the artificial leg. There was an improvement to be made, he just couldn't see it yet. "How's your thing going, by the way?"

She held her project up. "What do you think? Third attempt, but I think I've finally figured it out."

Hiccup looked. She had stitched him an icon. A Standard to be hung in the new Dragon Academy, and to be sewn into his flight suit. It was an artistic rendering of a dragon in flight, sewn in red on a black background. "I like it!"

Astrid hoped he meant it. _One day, when he's Chief, this will be his banner. It will hang with a hundred generations of Chief's Standards, lining the Great Hall..._

Astrid shivered. Hiccup had his place in history already. His seat in the Halls of Odin was assured, and he wouldn't rather be anywhere else than curled up under a blanket with her.

* * *

Days passed, and Hiccup was freed from bed-rest. There was a knock on the door, and he called them in. Gobber came in with a large sack over his shoulder. "Morning, Hiccup!"

"What's the count today?" Hiccup asked cheerfully.

"Two eggs have hatched. Both Monstrous Nightmares." Gobber reported. "But we're still averaging four eggs per house, five in the barns." He gestured at the large pot next to Hiccup. "Time we rotated yours over to the Main Hall."

Hiccup nodded and pulled on his large blacksmithing gloves. "Looks like we figured out the balance. Took longer than I would have liked."

"Large rooms are harder to heat." Gobber said as though it was obvious. "The houses protect the eggs from the cold, the eggs are hot enough to heat the room."

Hiccup checked up his notebook, the pages starting to wrinkle. "I just wish I could do something about the humidity. Hot inside, cold outside." He picked up the cooking pot and carried it into the main room. "And the eggs have one advantage over the firepits." He said with a smile. "They're mobile."

Gobber, using his smithing tools, carefully lifted the delicate little heat sources from the pot of sand. A small cloud of steam rose with it. Gobber carefully put them in his sack, and lifted out replacements. "These are the ones from the Barn. They've been in a large space for a while, so they've cooled a bit. Keep them closer together to warm up?"

"How many teams are doing this now?" Hiccup asked.

"We've got the village split up between three Egg Carriers, plus me. Tricky part is not confusing the eggs on rotation." Gobber reported dutifully. "But with heating taken care of, the entire fleet is out there for fishing." He pulled off his gloves. "Which reminds me. Miss Astrid says that the skies are clear again. Still icy, but the wind has settled."

Hiccup came to his feet. "Then it looks like I'm back at work."

"Clear skies, Dragonmaster!" Gobber called after him cheerfully, making his rounds.

* * *

His Riders were assembled along the dock in formation. The sky was crisp and clear, though bitterly cold. There was a layer of ice and snow over everything, but the people were out and about again, waving grandly.

"Good morning, folks!" Hiccup called. "Nice fishing weather, huh?"

His squadron chorused an agreement as Toothless settled to let Hiccup climb aboard.

"Alright, team. Just like the last two times! We find the fish, we get the boats there!"

The Dragonriders of Berk took off, flapping hard in the cold air. Toothless led the way, doing a strong loop around the whole island. Beneath them, the ship captains all saw the dragons in the sky and signaled to cast off.

The harbor had been frozen in by the winter, but that wasn't a problem any longer. Breaking them off the reefs had taught the Dragonriders how to get the fishing boats out all year round, and they had enough in their wing that they could power every ship left in Berk out to where the fishing was good.

As the smaller Dragons flew to make the strike, Astrid angled Stormfly to glide up next to Toothless. "So..."

"I've been waiting for you to punch my lights out for almost a week." Hiccup said lightly. "I'm starting to think you don't like me any more."

"I want half a mile between my knuckles, your lips, and your father. Gossipy hen." She teased. "Besides, what makes you think I ever liked you?"

"I don't know, but as long as you keep kissing me and saving my life, what do I care?"

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Ships are loose! Let's go!"

As the fleet left Berk, the Dragonriders fell into place above them. Hiccup rose high in his saddle and called to his people. "All right, folks! The weather is clear for the first time. The eggs have heat and protection from the cold. The villagers have hard work and a fleet full of nets, the ocean has plenty of food and lotions and medicines... What do we have?"

"Air support!" Astrid answered.

"Ice removal!" Fishlegs called back.

"Weather prediction!" The Twins called in unison.

"Amazing good looks!" Snotlout pumped a fist, and kissed his own bicep proudly.

"That's all?" Hiccup laughed. "We have... our Dragons!"

Toothless roared, and the Dragonriders of Berk soared across the sky in perfect formation, off on another mission.

* * *

 **AN** : _So, I hope that was a fun ride for you all. If you enjoyed it, I would draw your attention to the lovely 'review' button. Why not take it for a test drive?_


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